
Class _. 

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FOREGLEAMS OF 
GLORY 



RESURRECTION PAPERS 
FAITH REMINISCENCES 

IN TRINITY COLLEGE 



BY 



ELIZABETH SISSON 



THE EVANGEL PUBLISHING HOUSE 

3616 Prairie Avenue 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U. S. A. 

1912 



\.v 



Si 1(^1 



Copyright 1912 

BY 

The Evangel Publishing House 



Price Sl.OO (4s 2d) 



©CI.A330725 




FOREWORD 

HESE "Foregleams of Glory" are 
dedicated to "whom it may con- 
cern" for only as far as we have 
followed the Life ("the Life was 
the iignt" Jno. 1 :4) does the glory-light flash 
on the lines. 

Sometimes for disciplinary purposes a soul 
comes to utter loss of reputation, and for a time, 
utter wreckage in Christian service. It was in 
such an hour as this God flashed on the writer 
some of the meaning of our relations to other 
Ages and other spheres of action. 

In hope of comforting souls in -similar bewil- 
derment, "Resurrection Papers" and 'Taith 
Reminiscences" were sent forth in fugitive form. 
Friends in different lands have asked for them 
in permanent shape. Hence this book. 

The crudity with which profound truth is 
herein handled may perhaps be pardoned when 
we remember God is wont to "choose" "things 
which are not" for His marvelous high pur- 
poses ! 

And now may God add His blessing! 

As a tiny joint in Christ's Fair Body, one with 
you all. 

Elizabeth Sisson. 



CONTENTS 

RESURRECTION PAPERS 

I. The Two Resurrections 9 

II. Resurrection Glory 19 

III. Resurrection Order 26 

IV. Resurrection Order, Third Epoch 37 

V. Life of First Resurrectionists 52 

VI. Training of First Resurrectionists 63 

VII. Christ in Training for First Resurrection 76 

FAITH REMINISCENCES 

I. God Backing a Train 91 

II. Providing for the Family 98 

III. Tombstones Spurting Gold 104 

IV. The Money Token .108 

V. The Guarded Sovereign 113 

VI. The Priesthood and Its Maintenance 117 

IN TRINITY COLLEGE 

I. The Holy Ghost and Fire 125 

II. Jewel Joints 144 

III. The Heavenly Housekeeper 154 

IV. Blessings from Under the Threshold 161 

V. Cutting Back the Wood 173 

VI. Thirtyfold Fruitage 192 



Resurrection 
Papers 



The Two Resurrections 




HIS doctrine is most practical, 
though by the most of believers 
but little understood. The pop- 
ular notion that at the death of 
the body each saint comes into 
the full bliss and the full powers 
of the eternal life, is nowhere 
taught in the Word. Romans 
8:19-22 represents all creation now in sin and 
bondage, groaningly anticipating a release 
from that bondage into the liberty of the glory 
of God's children, and the twenty-third verse 
says that a measure of that groan is upon those 
who have the first-fruits of the Spirit (i. e., the 
Pentecostal baptism and its development and 
maturity) and will be until there comes the 
redemption of the tody. So we see the full 
glory of the liberty of the ^children of God 
awaits the resurrection of the body. With that 
resurrection is somehow involved the libera- 
tion of "all creation." 

"All creation" in the mouth of God is a 
great word, and if it means anything, must 
mean His created universe. Long, long ago 
some one said laughingly, "Given: the earth, 
which is known to be inhabited and the moon 
which is known to be uninhabited, to determine 



Resurrection Papers 

whether other worlds are inhabited or not." 
While much cannot be ascertained on that 
basis, yet there are hints in the Word of God 
like rifts in a cloud — the cloud of His "secret 
things," that other worlds are in creation's fall, 
and that the tragedy of Calvary enacted on this 
tiny ball, involves a wider redemption even 
than the race of man; but this subject is too 
vast for this paper. 

The two resurrections in their relation to 
humanity is all we wish to study now. That 
there are two, we have only to turn to the 
twentieth chapter of Revelation to see. There 
we find a first resurrection (verse 5) and a 
second (verse 12) with a thousand years or 
millennium reign between. There also we see 
in verses 1-5 that the first resurrection does not 
take place till near the time of the binding of 
Satan, an event still in the future. Thus it 
follows that whatever may now be the state 
of rapture of Abraham, Noah, David, Isaiah, 
Ezekiel, Wesley, Finney, Moody and the rest 
of the glorified dead, they have not yet entered 
into possession of their resurrection bodies, ex- 
cept the limited number who were raised with 
Jesus at His resurrection. Matt. 27:52, Ps. 
68:18. Some have waited nearly six thousand 
years for them ! Surely in God's salvation plan 
there are wide spaces ! What about the inter- 
mediate state that lies between death and the 
resurrection body? Scriptures are compara- 

10 



The Two Resurrections 

lively silent. We are told, "absent from the 
body, present with the Lord," 11. Cor. 5:8; ''to 
depart and be with Christ is far better.'" Phil. 
1 :23, and in our Lord's parable of the rich man 
and Lazarus (Luke 16:19) the conscious bliss 
of the blest and the conscious torment of the 
lost is portrayed. Other mention of that in- 
termediate state I think we have none. That 
the conditions of both classes will be greatly 
intensified in the resurrection of the body is 
made clear in the Scriptures. 

Let us return to a closer study of Revelation 
20, and we find not all the righteous dead come 
up in the first resurrection ; for at the Great 
White Throne Judgment where at the end of 
the Millennium Age the second resurrectionists 
assemble, the book of life is opened (Rev. 20 :12) 
and only those not found written therein pass 
on into the second death. But that not all the 
righteous dead come up in the first resurrec- 
tion, otherwise appears. Rev. 20:4 gives two 
very significant marks of these first-resurrec- 
tion Christians. First, their character; second, 
their occupation. 

Their Character — they are all martyr- 
souls, either literally or spiritually beheaded in 
their earth life ''for the witness of Jesus," "for 
the word of God." Not all Christians in their 
earthly career go far enough in their day and 
generation with the Word of God and the wit- 
ness of Jesus to be in consequence "done to 

11 



Resurrection Papers 

death," either physically or spiritually; but 
each generation of God's people has held some, 
who if they did not come to the martyr's death 
through faithfulness to His truth, yet for such 
loyalty they bore a martyr-life. This is the 
class of souls that come up in the first resur- 
rection ; souls who in their earth-life kept the 
garments white, singularly unworldly, for they 
''had not worshipped the beast" — the great 
Antichristal power — which, while it heads up 
in a person at the end of this age, yet as ''prin- 
cipalities . . . powers . . . world-rulers of this 
darkness" (Eph. 6:12, R. V.) "that spirit of 
Antichrist" John said even in his day was "now 
already in the world." I. Jno. 4:3. But these 
souls in training for first resurrection "had not 
worshipped" this world-power; "in their fore- 
heads" was not the sign of its worry, care, 
greed or avarice ; "in their hands" no unclean 
trickery of deed or pen had put its mark. 
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the 
first resurrection." The Apostle Paul longed 
to be one of these first resurrectionists (Phil. 
3:7-11) and you can put him alongside of this 
description, and feel sure that he had the mature 
developed Christian character which fitted to 
it. But when you try to measure into it the for- 
given, dying thief, whose eternal blessedness 
Jesus Himself declares, you see he left the earth 
no such warrior soul. His was a death-bed re- 
pentance; he drew one baby-breath of blessed 

12 



The Two Resurrections 

Christian life and was gone, but in point of 
immaturity he represents a large class of Chris- 
tians in each generation who have lived and 
died mere babes in Christ — skinny old babes, 
some of them, for they lived, twenty, forty, 
sixty years after they had been washed in the 
blood of the Lamb, "sinning and repenting" 
to the end, unvictorious in daily walk and life. 
As second resurrectionists they come up to the 
Great White Throne where every man is 
judged according to his works — Rev. 20:12, 13 
— having built upon the Christ-foundation 
more wood, hay and stubble than ''gold, silver 
or precious stones ;" much of their work 
burned, yet they themselves "saved so as by 
fire." I. Cor. 3:11-15. They have "suffered 
loss" perhaps many ways, but noticeably in 
that they have missed the first resurrection. 
What are the rewards of the first resurrection? 
This brings us to the second part of the de- 
scription of first resurrectionists ; their occu- 
pation. ''They shall sit on thrones;" they are 
all rulers. Now we know in every government 
there are the ruled-over-ones and the ruling 
ones. So in the Kingdom of God : there are the 
blessedly ruled-over-ones, and those whose joy 
it is to sit with Jesus in His throne, and bring 
in all the gladness of the regeneration of this 
earth in the Millennium Age and the further 
work of after ages. If I might be so allowed 

13 



Resurrection Papers 

to bring out the figure — Christ and His cabinet- 
officers. 

There are many hints of this in different 
parts of the Word. Ps. 49:14 speaking of the 
wicked says, "Like sheep they are laid in the 
grave ; death shall feed upon them ; the upright 
shall have dominion over them in the morning,"' 
I. Cor. 6:2, "Do ye not know that the saints 
shall judge the world?" Dan. 7:22, "The An- 
cient of Days came and judgment was given 
to the saints of the Most High." Ps. 149 :5-9, 
"Let the saints be joyful. . .let them sing aloud 
. . .let the high praises of God be in their mouth 
. . .to execute vengeance upon the heathen. . . 
punishment upon the people... to bind their 
kings... and their nobles... to execute upon 
them the judgment written ; this honor have all 
His saints." In Luke 19:17-19, we read of 
those who at the coming of the Lord shall have 
authority, some over ten cities and some over 
five. In I. Cor. 6:3, "Know ye not that we 
shall judge angels?" and Jude tells us in his 
sixth verse of these fallen angels "reserved in 
everlasting chains under darkness unto the 
judgment of the great day." So we see that a 
tremendous work of judging those who have 
missed the mark both among men and angels 
has been waiting, and some of it will wait an- 
other thousand years until after the millen- 
nium, for a band who have been from age to 
age trained, developed to rule co-ordinate with 

14 



The Two Resurrections 

Christ their King, and to whom is given judg- 
ment punitive and remedial. 

A Christian worker who in his mortal life is 
used to bring blessing to hundreds or thou- 
sands is a happy soul, but a Christian who 
comes up in the first resurrection to go on with 
Jesus in the regeneration of the earth — Matt. 
19 :28 — is many fold a happy soul ! At a glance 
we see the fitness of committing such judg- 
ment to the warrior soul, Paul, whose whole 
life of death to self and aliveness to God has 
made a preparation; and the unfitness of rele- 
gating such authority to the saved and happy, 
but babe-life of the converted thief on the 
cross. Only they who on earth co-operated 
with God in the full judgment of self from their 
own lives, are thus prepared to enter into the 
responsible work of judging the world and 
judging angels. 

What in our present life are we candidates 
for? All the death of self and all the life of 
God wrought out in us? Then are we candi- 
dates for first resurrection, or better still in 
this latest hour before He comes, translation. 
There are two companies caught away to meet 
the Lord in the air; one from among the dead, 
and one from among the living — I. Thes. 4:16, 
17 — but one divine principle rules in both ; they 
are prepared ones, by His life deeply wrought 
out in them ; prepared for solemn regenerative 
work — Matt. 19:28. The road is a deep one 

15 



Resurrection Papers 

into brideship, into the first resurrection, into 
translation ! 

All shall come into resurrection for the Rev- 
elator speaking of the setting of the Great 
White Throne said, "I saw the dead small and 
great stand before the throne, and the books 
were opened," but a noble company of Christ's 
own were not there. For a thousand years as 
the cabinet-officers of Jesus, with Him they 
had been engaged in the glorious work of 
restoration in this sinful earth, while the bodies 
of other Christians of lower orders still slept, 
and their spirits and souls only were with Jesus 
in the ecstasy of the intermediate state. The 
word of divine plan is unalterable; "raised 
every man in his own order.'' I. Cor. 15:23. 
Can we wonder seeing the glory of the first 
resurrection that Paul so longed for it in Phil. 
3 ? That he might attain to this "out-resurrec- 
tion" (Greek, prior, previous, first resurrection) 
from among the dead, Paul counted all things 
but loss — suffered the loss as of so much rub- 
bish, panted to know Christ in deepest inti- 
macy and the power of His resurrection — that 
is, the power of the Holy Ghost, the full and 
deepening power of Pentecost, and this to an 
end, not service, mighty and blessed mission- 
ary as he was, but likeness to Jesus; to have 
the power of Pentecost, the power of Christ's 
resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, 
being made conformable to His death! if by 

16 



The Two Resurrections 

any means he might attain to "the out-resur- 
rection from among dead ones." This, Paul 
conceived was the only pathway into the first- 
resurrection glory. He wanted it with no 
selfish desire to be to all eternity a foremost 
star, but to hasten all God's glorious plan for 
the liberations of the Millennium and other 
ages, for the wider knowledge of Jesus to 
darkened souls everywhere, for the release of 
a groaning creation, for the giving to Jesus in 
himself one of that band by whom Christ would 
accomplish it all ; without whom Christ would 
never return to this earth, for He will never 
return till He has ready for this work a band 
of this character from among the living, for 
transaltion, and a band from among the dead 
as first resurrectionists. In Heb. 11 :35 we read 
of those who were "tortured not accepting de- 
liverance that they might obtain a better resur- 
rection.^' 

"God has His best things for the few 

That dare to stand the test, 
God has His second choice for those 

Who will not have His best." 

Nor do I believe that of that "holy and 
blessed" band of first resurrectionists and 
translated ones, any have desired a deliverance 
of any sort which would war against "a better 
resurrection" or any best thing of God. Are 
you a candidate for this pathway into the first 
resurrection or the now imminent translation? 

17 



Resurrection Papers 

How solemn the declaration "and the rest of 
the dead," — all who were not of this character, 
all who were not raised for this work; that is 
beside the wicked dead, all the children of God 
throughout the ages who had not the character 
described in Rev. 20:4; all who could not be 
raised as ruling ones, cabinet-officers of Jesus 
— "and the rest of the dead lived not again 
until the thousand years were finished." "Hurt 
of the second death !" Their existence has not 
gone into it, they have been "saved so as by 
fire," but their "high calling" has sunk under 
its power. "Blessed and holy is he that hath 
part in the first resurrection; on such the 
second death hath no power, but they shall be 
priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign 
with Him a thousand years." Rev. 20:6. 



18 




II 

Resurrection Glory 

In First Corinthians 15:35-42 the 
question is sprung: ''How are 
the dead raised up? and with 
what body do they come?" The 
answer shows that as in the nat- 
ural realm, so in the spiritual, 
"that which thou sowest is not 
quickened except it die." It is 
the law of life out of death. "That which thou 
sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall 
be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of 
some other grain ; but God giveth it a body as 
it hath pleased Him," not arbitrarily but ac- 
cording to a fixed law "to every seed his own 
bodyr 

We turn to John 12 :24 and find Jesus speak- 
ing of Himself as a grain of wheat, which, by 
falling into the ground, and dying, was to bring 
forth much fruit. Wheat, we know, is the 
choicest of the grains ; others are precious, as 
oats, barley, rye, maize, rice, etc., but inferior 
to wheat. Jesus sowed Himself into the death 
of wheat; that is, into the highest and fullest 
death of nature unto God. He had absolutely 
no life to nature, but all to God. "I came not 
to do mine own will, but the will of Him that 
sent me." You and I may sow ourselves into 



19 



Resurrection Papers 

the death of wheat, or of oats or of barley, etc., 
we shall rise with the resurrection glory of that 
body with which we went down to death. If 
we have sown ourselves barley — that is, with 
much of the death of Christ in our Christian 
walk and something also for self, we shall rise 
with the resurrection glory of that body with 
which we went down to death. If we have 
sown ourselves barley we shall not come up 
"bare grain" of barley, not the renewal of the 
beauty of our Christian life on earth, but with 
a glory far exceeding the bare grain, but it will 
be the resurrection glory of barley, and noth- 
ing can make it the resurrection glory of oats 
or rice or wheat. As in nature so in grace, 
the law is inexorable, "to every seed his own 
body." 

From the viewpoint of resurrection our 
whole earthly life is an opportunity to sow 
ourselves to death, and we Christians are con- 
stantly electing how far we will go spiritually 
into the death of our Master. "For whosoever 
will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever 
will lose his life for my sake shall find it." 
"All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one 
kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, 
another of fishes, another of birds" — varying 
orders of life. "There are also celestial bodies 
and bodies terrestrial ; but the glory of the 
celestial is one, and the glory of the terres- 
trial is another. There is one glory of the sun, 

20 



Resurrection Glory 

and another glory of the moon, and another 
glory of the stars ; for one star differeth from 
another star in glory, so also is the resurrection 
of the dead.'' Varying orders in glory, and ev- 
ery child of God fixes his own order in glory 
by the measure of spiritual death he allows 
God to sow him into here in his earthly ca- 
reer. 

If, like Paul, he pants to know the full fel- 
lowship of Christ's sufferings and be made 
conformable to His death, his desire shall be 
granted and he, like Paul, shall sow himself 
into death of wheat, in an uninterrupted "I 
am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, 
yet not I, Christ liveth in me," having "cruci- 
fied the flesh with the affections and the lusts." 
As he diminishes into that full death, he 
changes in quality as from oats to wheat, etc., 
etc., and comes up in the resurrection glory of 
the grain that fell into the ground and died. 

"Conformable to His death."— Phil. 3:10. 
How much does it mean? Of Jesus we read 
not only, "Lo, I come to do Thy will," but "I 
delight to do Thy will."— Ps. 40 :8. There was 
a quality in His life that fully fulfilled the com- 
mand, "giving thanks always for all things." 
"5y Hinif therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of 
praise to God continually." With Him there 
was a joy in suffering that made Him say of 
each event in life, "The cup which my Father 
hath given me, shall I not drink it?" It is 

21 



Resurrection Papers 

written that for the joy set before Him, He 
endured the cross, despising the shame," and 
the Greek has been otherwise rendered, "think- 
ing down upon the shame." — Heb. 12:2. So 
we see that through delight to do the will of 
God, He was above His death while He hung 
in its agonies and its cruel shame. It was this 
voluntariness with which He passed into His 
every death that made the rare quality of the 
sowing of the corn of wheat. In another type 
is hidden all the beauty of this, His death, and 
if we will it, our death in Him. 

In the Paschal feast it was said of the lamb, 
**Not a bone of him shall be broken," and year 
by year throughout the Jewish age, most lit- 
erally was the form kept, the blood was shed, 
the flesh was eaten, but not a bone of the lamb 
was broken. The type unfolded when the sol- 
diers came to the three hanging on Calvary 
"to break the legs of the first and of the other 
that was crucified with Him, but when they 
came to Jesus and saw that He was dead al- 
ready, they brake not His legs . . . for these 
things were done that the scriptures should be 
fulfilled, 'a bone of Him shall not be broken.' " 
—John 19:32-36. "Dead already." Why? As 
we follow the different accounts we learn the 
cross never took Jesus' life. "He gave up the 
ghost." When he saw that "all things were 
accomplished" and every scripture concerning 
Him fulfilled, like all who joyfully acquiesce 

22 



Resurrection Glory 

in the will of God, in death He got ahead of 
those who hung on the other two crosses, and 
it was not necessary to break His legs, as was 
done to hasten their death. Natural law took 
their lives, but when His spirit was able to say, 
"It is finished," death had no more power over 
Him and He ''yielded up the ghost" and oh, 
it is so glorious that Jesus in us will carry us 
through our many deaths, in the ''fellowship 
of His suffering," "conforming us unto His 
death," sustaining us with the "joy set before 
Him" — how the martyrs of many ages have 
proved this ! — causing us to despise the shame, 
"giving thanks always for all things." Our 
deaths are certainly shortened as He carries us 
through in such a fashion. 

Oh, the glory of the resurrection from the 
death of the wheat! In Him we see it por- 
trayed in Rev. 1 :13-15. But is not the same 
glory brought forth by Rev. 19:10, where Rev- 
elator falls to worship at the feet of an angel* 
who is showing him great things of God? The 
angel checks him, telling how he is but a re- 
deemed creature, "a fellow servant" of John 
"and of thy brethren." Did not John know 
that angels or any created beings were not for 
worship? You and I know that God is the 
object of worship. Was John less spiritually 
intelligent? The natural deduction is that 
this one looked so like Jesus that John thought 



*Gr. angel or messenger. 

23 



Resurrection Papers 

it was Jesus, and what a commentary is this 
upon "we shall be like Him." The Revelator 
is now corrected and will not make this mis- 
take again ! We turn into the next chapter but 
one and find again an angel showing him the 
glories of the New Jerusalem, and again John 
is worshipping an angel ! Again he is told 
"See thou do it not," *T am thy fellow servant 
and of thy brethren." — Rev. 22:8, 9. How 
strong is the inference that John could not tell 
the difference between Jesus and some re- 
deemed ones from the earth. "The glory which 
thou gavest me, I have given them." 

But who are these angels, these redeemed 
ones from the earth that it was impossible for 
John to distinguish from Jesus? They are 
among the Judgment Messengers of the Reve- 
lation time. The one the Revelator was for- 
bidden to worship in chapter twenty-two is de- 
scribed as "one of the seven angels which had 
the seven vials full of the seven last plagues," 
and if one of these seven glorious creatures, 
executives of the wrath of God against unholi- 
ness, was a redeemed one from the earth, is 
it not possible the other six were of the same 
order of beings? Here is light upon Rev. 20:4, 
"I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and 
judgment was given unto them." "Know ye 
not that the saints shall judge the world," and 
"they lived and reigned with Christ." Also 
the angel of Rev. 19, who forbade John's wor- 

24 



Resurrection Glory 

ship of him because he was a fellow servant 
and a brother from earth, if we trace back the 
pronoun to its noun, must be either "the 
mighty angel" of Rev. 18:21 or "another angel 
come down from heaven having great power 
and the earth was lighted with his glory." — 
Rev. 18:1. 

Oh, it pays to go all the way with Jesus ! 
even into the full death of the corn of wheat. 
"If we suffer with Him we shall also reign 
with Him." "The secret of the Lord is with 
them that fear Him." "He made known His 
ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of 
Israel." As we go forward in the school of 
Christ, in the transmutation from the natural 
to the divine, God takes us out from the chil- 
dren-of-Israel class into the Moses class, fitting 
us as a son to enter into partnership in the busi- 
ness of the Father. Co-operation with Him in 
His redemption plan of the ages, this is the 
glory of the first resurrection. It is something 
now to be an honored instrument in God's 
hands in this mortal life to win thousands of 
souls to Jesus. It is more to be reigning with 
Christ in His throne bringing in successive 
ages (Gr. aeions) of increasing blessedness. 
This is the glory of the first resurrection. 



25 




Ill 

Resurrection Order 

^AUL speaks more especially of res- 
urrection order in I. Cor. 15 :20-28. 
Three epochs are here brought to 
view. We shall take up that part 
of it which particularly refers to 
the believers of this age and of the 
millennial age. ''Now is Christ 
risen from the dead and become 
the first fruits . . . but every man in his own 
order, Christ the first fruits (first epoch) ; after- 
ward they that are Christ's at His coming (sec- 
ond epoch) ; then cometh the end." (third epoch). 
This will be more clearly brought to mind if we 
turn back to Lev. 23, the first-fruit chapter, which 
Paul is here opening up. The chapter is headed, 
"The feasts of the Lord." "These are My feasts," 
God says. There are seven of them: the Feast 
of the Sabbath, the Feast of Passover, the Feast 
of first first-fruits, of second first-fruits (or Pen- 
tecost), of Trumpets, of the Day of Atonement, 
and the Feast of Tabernacles. In this resur- 
rection theme Paul is concerned with but 
three of them, the harvest-feasts. These are 
types, as the apostle unfolds them, of wonder- 
ful significance ; types of dispensational epochs. 
Under the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit 
Paul shows us in that tiny sheaf of wheat 



26 



Resurrection Order 

waved in the temple the third day after the 
Passover feast, our Lord in His resurrection. 
"Speak unto the children of Israel and say 
unto them when ye be come into the land 
which I give unto you, and shall reap the 
harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf 
of the first-fruit of your harvest unto the priest, 
and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, 
to be accepted for you, on the morrow after 
the Sabbath (that is the third day from the 
Passover offering: Resurrection Day) the priest 
shall wave it." So indeed it was. At Jeru- 
salem, throughout the Jewish age of temple 
worship, the priest who offered the slain lamb 
and who saw to it that "not a bone of him was 
broken" — the same priest on the third day after 
the lamb was slain, year by year, brought and 
waved the sheaf of first-fruits. Though they 
understood it not, yet in the economy of God they 
must typify throughout the age Christ the Paschal 
Offering and Christ the Resurrection. 

Not only in that sheaf of wheat as it was 
waved do we see Christ in resurrection, but the 
beginning of the unfolding of His order in resur- 
rection: He has hidden it in the types of these 
three harvest feasts. First feast, Sheaf of wheat, 
Jesus and the company that came up with Him. 
Second feast, Feast of Second first-fruits, or 
Feast of Pentecost ; "they that are Christ's at His 
coming." Third feast, Feast of Tabernacles, or 
great general harvest feast, feast of the ingath- 

27 



Resurrection Papers 

ering. Here again there are wide spaces between 
these types which hint at even wider spaces in 
their fulfilment. We see there are two first- 
fruits with a space of at least two thousand years 
between them in resurrection. Christ the first- 
fruits : in crucifixion He is a grain of wheat fall- 
ing into the ground (John 12 :24) ; in resurrec- 
tion He is a waved sheaf of wheat. How many 
grains in a sheaf of wheat ? More no doubt than 
the hundred- fold. Ps. 68:18, "Thou hast as- 
cended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive" 
(Heb. a multitude of captives). These "captives" 
must surely refer to those of Matt. 28:52, "And 
the graves were opened : and many bodies of the 
saints which slept arose and came out of the 
graves after His resurrection . . . went into the 
holy city . . . appeared unto many." This com- 
pany came up with Christ the Head — the first in- 
stallment of the "much fruit" produced by the 
corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died 
— holy ones who had prophetically seen Christ's 
day in its spiritual significance (Jno. 8:56) and 
whose suffering lives had been sown so exactly 
into the quality of His death that His resurrec- 
tion not only in quality but in time became theirs. 
They have preceded us ; whatever our glory, they 
have gone on in front of us. Consider them. 

They were of a dispensation that had not the 
full blaze of Gospel light, but dwelt in the glim- 
merings of the types and shadows. Yet this 
prior resurrection shows that souls absolutely 

28 



Resurrection Order 

reverent follow light that may lead them beyond 
the grace and gifts of their own dispensation, 
while a little observation proves that the major- 
ity of God's souls live below the privileges and 
provisions of their own dispensation, as did most 
Israelites in their day, and as have most Chris- 
tians in this Gospel Age. Yes, we repeat, con- 
sider them: this "multitude of captives." How 
great is their gain ! While the bodies of con- 
temporaries lie in .their graves, continuing their 
long wait for resurrection, these have the ex- 
quisite joy of coming up in the Sheaf of Wheat 
and passing on to the throne, hidden in Christ, 
for full overcomers of all ages are with Jesus on 
His throne. Rev. 3:21. 

In our thoughts what questions crowd around 
this company! From the throne for now nearly 
two thousand years they have watched the forma- 
tion, development, decline and now fresh quick- 
ening of the Christian Church. What co-opera- 
tive part have they had with Christ through the 
age! We do not wish to be wise above what is 
written; we can well afford to stop where God 
stops, and reverence His silence as much as we 
rejoice in His revelation, but is there not deep 
significance in such words as these : "Take, my 
brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the 
name of the Lord, for an example (something to 
be copied) of suffering affliction, and of patience. 
Behold we count them happy which endure." 
Jas. 5:10, 11. Abraham saw Christ's day. Jno. 

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Resurrection Papers 

8:56. When? Doubtless when he yielded un- 
questioning, ready obedience to God's command, 
"Take thy son . . . thine only . . . and offer him" 
upon one of the mountains of Moriah "for a 
burnt offering," and Abraham rose ''early in the 
morning" and went his heart-rending way, all 
the way. To all intents and purposes "Abraham 
offered up Isaac." Heb. 11:17. His heart ac- 
complished the act though his hand was stayed 
by divine interposition. Already he had unwit- 
tingly prophesied, "God will provide Himself an 
offering." Now in the crucial moment as the 
knife was arrested, think you not that God flashed 
on him the vision of His own marvelous provis- 
ion to the age of the ages — the Lamb of God? 
Abraham had been a long time going from one 
deepening act of faith's obedience to another — 
spiritually we mature by successive acts of faith 
— now in this crowning step, he became grown up 
in God enough for God to pass him out of the 
children-of-Israel school, that is, of those who 
know God's acts only, into the Moses school of 
those to whom He makes known His ways. Ps. 
103:7. Thus he saw Jesus the Way, and ''zvas 
glad." Did not the gladness then and there com- 
pensate for the agony? It always does, for God 
pays us as we go, in heaven's own coin for every 
step of obedience and faith. How much more 
as he came up a grain in that Sheaf of Wheat ! ! ! 
So we might look into the lives of many others, 
Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, etc., to see them trav- 

30 



Resurrection Order 

eling the same death-route and maturing thereby 
to belong to Jesus' own resurrection. Others 
there doubtless were, unmentioned in the Word, 
who inconspicuously journeyed the same way. 
Jehovah is no respecter of persons; any soul of 
any dispensation that wants to find the highest 
in God, welcomes the light, meets the tests and 
continues to go forward to the end; all such He 
will by His grace take to the very highest. All 
hail the grace and condescension of God ! 

Let us here look into the Pentecostal Feast, or 
the feast of the second first-fruits, which brings 
us to the second order in resurrection. It is 
named ''they that are Christ's at His coming/' 
Now that all signs of His appearing are so rap- 
idly fulfilling, everything about this company most 
vitally concerns us. The types here are rich with 
instruction. Fifty days had to be numbered from 
the waving of the sheaf of wheat, to bring 
this feast. It was the feast of the fifties, fifty 
and Pentecost being synonomous in the Greek. 
In that number was hidden two time-epochs, and 
how much more who can tell ! Fifty days covers 
literally the time from Jesus' resurrection to the 
descent of the Holy Spirit. Fifty days covers 
typically the dispensation from Jesus' resurrec- 
tion and ascension till His return for those who 
are His at His coming. 

The descent of the Holy Spirit was not upon 
the whole company of believers — for Jesus ''was 
seen of above five hundred brethren at once" 

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Resurrection Papers 

after His resurrection (I. Cor. 15:6) — but upon 
a little inner circle of one hundred and twenty. 
Then as now there were two strongly differen- 
tiated companies of believers; one hundred and 
twenty who on the day of Pentecost touched at 
least the outer rim of the dispensation of the 
Holy Spirit, and three hundred and eighty saved 
ones outside that inner circle. Provisionally, the 
body of believers from the day of the descent of 
the Spirit have been in the dispensation of the 
Holy Spirit; experimentally, the larger number 
on that day knew nothing of the dispensation 
though they had the experience of being saved by 
Jesus. Has it not been so ever since? A large 
part of the host of God in each generation have 
not known the baptism with the Holy Spirit and 
fire, though they have experienced the operations 
of the Spirit in conviction, conversion, and some- 
thing of the keeping power of salvation — lived 
below their dispensation; never came into its 
privileges and its power, and thus will never come 
up in its resurrection. 

This type of resurrection, unlike the Sheaf of 
Wheat, is composed of two wave loaves; com- 
paratively much grain in these. Why two wave 
loaves? Because I. Thess. 4:15-17 tells us that 
they that are Christ's at His coming will be in 
two companies, one from among the dead and 
one from among the living. The requirements 
for both are searching, "They shall be of fine 
flour." Jesus tells us of Himself (doubtless as 

32 



Resurrection Order 

the grain of wheat and the sheaf of wheat) that 
a corn of grain must abide alone except it die 
(Jno. 12:24) and Hour speaks most clearly of 
the crushed and death-state of the grain, while 
''fine flour" with the figure drawn from the 
crude mills of the East, tells of "deaths oft"; 
repeated grindings and siftings, with a great ex- 
penditure of time and labor to make flour fine. 

In India, with their hand mills, the writer has 
often watched the many processes a month before 
the holidays, to make flour fine enough for cakes 
and confections for Christmas. The wheat must 
ofttimes be remanded to the grinding of the up- 
per and nether millstones, and sifted again and 
again through cloth of coarse, fine, and still finer 
grades. In Hebrew it is the same word we are 
told, for the grinding by the women at the mills 
and the contriting of the human heart. "I dwell 
in the high and holy place, with him also that is 
of a contrite (ground) and humble spirit, etc." 
Isa. 57:15. Thus "they that are Christ's at His 
coming" both resurrection and translation Chris- 
tians, are Hne Hour. It is also said "they shall be 
haken.. . . they are first fruits." Baken — fire, 
fire, fire; this is ever the type of "they that are 
Christ's at His coming." Pentecostal fruits, 
fruits of the fifties. Fire enkindled souls ! They 
have availed themselves of the glorious provis- 
ions of Matt. 3:11, "He shall baptize you in the 
Holy Spirit and fire" 

Oh do we not see the strong line of demarka- 

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Resurrection Papers 

tion between the baptized and the unbaptized 
souls of the Lord? This Gospel Age in which 
we live is known as the Church Age. Truly it is, 
but not because all saved in it are of the church, 
but rather because the main purpose of God in 
this dispensation is to develop and mature for 
Christ the bride, the church. We are distinctly 
told in Acts 15 :14 that this visitation to the Gen- 
tiles is "to take out of them a people for His 
name." When a man goes to a house to take out 
one for his name he is seeking the young girl 
who is to be his bride — not to marry the family. 
Yet, many have taught all through this Gentile 
dispensation that God's purpose was to convert 
the world. No, the main purpose throughout 
has been to bring forth that blessed portion for 
Christ's Name, His bride. 

Incidentally many other things may be accom- 
plished, a large body of believers brought forth, 
who rejected or neglected the provision that 
would have matured them for first resurrection 
Christians, and whom death reaps and holds in 
the same paradise with Old Testament saints of 
like grade, waiting their (the second) resurrec- 
tion. Rev. 20. 

Every soul raised in its "own order.'' Thus 
we find on the day of Pentecost and ever since 
through the Christian age, we have had these 
two bodies of believers ; the Spirit-baptized 
and those who have lived without that bap- 
tism. Are all believers bride-souls? No. But 

34 



Resurrection Order 

we are told the bride is the church, and Christ is 
the Head of the Church as the husband is the 
head of the wife (Eph. 5:23-27) and the bride, 
the church is the body of Christ (Eph. 1 :22, 23; 
Eph. 5:29, 30, 32; Col. 2:17, 19, etc.). The 
terms are interchangeable, the bride, the church, 
the body. How do we get into the church, which 
is His body? Many believers will tell you "By 
the new birth." God does not say so. The new 
birth, He tells us, admits to the kingdom of God. 
Jno. 3:3, 5. How then do we get into the church, 
His body? We are all baptized into one body 
(I. Cor. 12:13) ; born into the kingdom, baptised 
into the body. So we see all through this age 
there are kingdom believers and body believers. 
Thus on the day of Pentecost there were one 
hundred and twenty baptized into the one body, 
the tiny nucleus of the church of God in this, the 
church age, and three hundred and eighty king- 
dom believers, who had by the new birth gotten 
into the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit's 
mission for two thousand years has been to woo 
the unsaved world, through the new birth, into 
God's kingdom, and then to woo these born-of- 
God-ones, through the baptism of the Holy 
Spirit, into the church of God. "My little chil-- 
dren," said Paul, "for whom I travail in birth 
again until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4:19), 
thus was the Holy Spirit taking possession of 
Paul with the Spirit's second travail. There is 
a double call, a double work, a double travail, 

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Resurrection Papers 

a higher and a lower road on which believers 
journey with their differing times in resurrection; 
differing rewards and different position in rela- 
tion to service in millennium and after ages. 
What we let our Lord fit us for here and now, to 
that position of service and increasing usefulness 
shall we go in those after times. As I once heard 
a little Salvation Army lassie say, " This is not 
our Christian service; we are only learning the 
trade now.'' To all mankind the earth-life is 
probation — ^the Christian-worker apprenticeship. 
Hallelujah! Oh the glories of the after ages 
with their advancing service for those who learn 
well their lessons here! For there are many, 
many grades among those who get into the "in- 
ner circle." Paul says there is a glory of the 
sun, of the moon, of the stars, and many varying 
degrees among the stars ; "so also is the resurrec- 
tion." 



36 



IV 




Resurrection Order 

THIRD EPOCH 

E come to the third type : Feast of 
Tabernacles, otherwise known as, 
feast of booths, feast of the in- 
gathering, feast of the great 
general harvest. This feast took 
place from the fifteenth day of the 
seventh month, as the feast of 
Pentecost fifty days after the Pass- 
over feast. Observe the time element in 
resurrection order. Between the two parts of 
the first resurrection, namely, when Christ and 
those that rose with Him, and secondly when 
He returns for the company who are His "at 
His coming," is a time quantity of fifty days or 
one and a half months. Similarly from the 
catching away of that company till the end of 
the second resurrection (the beginning of 
which is shown in Rev. 20.) is five and a half 
months, or one hundred and sixty-five days. 
Something amazing in the plan of God is here 
hinted at. 

We saw in our last paper that in Dispensational 
fulfillment the fifty days of the Pentecostal feast 
covers the two thousand years of this Gentile age, 
the time quantity between His going away and 
His return for His ready ones. If fifty days 



37 



Resurrection Papers 

open the two thousand (or thereabout) year 
period of this dispensation, therefrom we infer 
the one hundred and sixty-five days from that to 
the feast of Tabernacles might cover more than 
three times two thousand — six thousand years ! 

The great length and glory of God's salvation- 
plan hardly dawns upon us in our present infantile 
condition. Three times in the Word it is said 
God keepeth covenant with the people to a 
thousand generations. Allowing thirty-three 
years to a generation (although we know that 
the antedeluvian generations were much longer) 
up to the end of the millennium age, covering 
seven thousand years there will have been about 
two hundred and sixteen generations. Thus we 
see if these words of God ''unto a thousand 
generations" are considered words (and what 
words of God are not considered?) there is a 
mighty vastness in salvation's scheme. It is as 
if it were hardly begun at the end of the 
millennium age. With great emphasis God brings 
out the thought of His thousand generation 
covenant with His creatures. In I. Chron. 16:15 
He speaks of it as "the word which He com- 
manded;" in Deut. 7:9 He speaks of Himself 
as the faithful God which keepeth covenant and 

mercy to a thousand generations; in Ps. 

105 :8 He declares "He hath remembered His 
covenant forever, the word which He commanded 
to a thousand generations." 

What does all this mean? If we turn back to 

38 



Resurrection Order — Third Epoch 

I. Cor. 15 which is the only chapter opening up 
the order in resurrection, we begin to comprehend 
the force of the Httle adverb "then" of verse 24; 
"then Cometh the end." Some superficial readers 
have made it an adverb of time, and have read 
''afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming, 
then Cometh the end" and have gone about teach- 
ing that immediately upon Christ's coming for 
His own, everything in the plan finishes up then 
and there. This however sets the book of 
Revelation awry, for we are taught by this book 
after Christ's coming ensues "the Tribulation, 
the Great" (thus the Greek gives it) and after 
the tribulation, the millennium, and after the 
millennium the Great White Throne Judgment, 
and after this the New Heavens and the New 
Earth ; when for the first time the Bride is shown, 
and long after that, we do not know how long, 
we find the sin question still open (Rev. 22 :14,15) 
and sinners still being dealt with. How much 
loss we suffer if we do not take God's perspective ! 
The sinners of our human race certainly seem to 
have their affairs close up at the Great White 
Throne Judgment, as recorded in Rev. 20, but 
that is only the conclusion of the seven thousand 
years of God's dealings with man. At a glance 
we see this is but a small part of His faithfulness 
to a thousand generations. Are there then other 
worlds inhabited by beings of a probationary 
existence, who like our own race have disobeyed 
God and need the benefits of Christ's atonement ? 

39 



Resurrection Papers 

Is that what the willing and obedient ones are 
in training for here and now? To go from star 
to star and proclaim to sinners of other races the 
grace which has made them free? Do you see 
the spheres of usefulness for souls made ready 
for the work? Cabinet officers of Jesus, winging 
their way (in glorified bodies like our Lord's) 
from one constellation to another, bringing ruin 
to order, changing darkness to light, salvation's 
streams flowing in every direction! Aviation? 
Aviation is child's play to the swiftness, the 
grandeur, the import of these chariots of God. 
No danger, no delay, no counter currents, God 
Himself the atmosphere in which they move, 
(Ps. 18, S. S. 6:12) chariots of His willing people 
carrying Him as they outspeed the foremost 
dreams of present day science. 

To return from our thought excursion to the 
little adverb "then" that started us out: by the 
unfolding of the plan in Revelation we see that 
it is not an adverb of time ; that is, does not mean 
immediately, but is an adverb of sequence or 
order. It signifies, that following after these 
events, comes this other event. Very clearly it 
would fall out, in the mind of a Jewish child, 
accustomed yearly to celebrate these three Jewish 
feasts, the first in the middle of the first month ; 
second, a month and a half later; third, some 
five and a half months beyond — much as to an 
American child who had said early in December, 
"Mamma, which comes first, Fourth of July or 

40 



Resurrection Order — Third Epoch 

Christmas?" to which the mother replies, "First 
comes Christmas, then New Year's, and "then" 
comes Fourth of July," not following immediately 
upon the New Year holiday, but is third in order 
of sequence. 

Very, very much is taught us in I. Cor. 15 :24- 
28, "Then cometh the end, when He shall have 
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, 
when He shall have put down all rule and all 
authority and power." "For He must reign till 

He hath put all enemies under His feet and 

when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then 
shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him 
that put all things under Him, that God may be 
all in all." Thus we are shown a time when the 
personality of Christ is re-absorbed in the God- 
head: doubtless because the occasion is over for 
which the one God manifested Himself in three 
persons : the blessed triune Father, Son and Holy 
Spirit, for the revealing of Himself to creature- 
hood in redemption's plan. 

This is also another way of seeing that the little 
adverb "then" is not of time, but of order, of 
sequence: for we know by many scriptures that 
upon Christ's coming to receive them "that are 
His" He sets up a throne in the earth and reigns 
here one thousand years, but he who writes "then 
cometh the end," speaks of it as a time of an 
abdication of a throne" when He shall have 
delivered up the kingdom to God." The writer 
goes on to speak of a period when all things shall 

41 



Resurrection Papers 

be subdued under Christ. Does he mean all things 
on this tiny terrestrial ball, one of the smallest 
of God's worlds, or does he mean all things in 
God's universe? It is plain the little adverb 
"then" has carried us far out in the eternities 
of God, long past the closing up of the affairs of 
this world and its millennium age and set us 
down in the New Heavens and New Earth. 

Returning to Romans 8:19-23, at which we 
glanced in the first of these Resurrection Papers, 
we are taught that there is a scheme of God which 
in its ultimate outworking involves the release 
of "the whole creation." On a starry night we 
gaze up into the heavens and we are told that 
it is possible for an average eye to count morning 
and evening six or seven thousand stars ; with 
even the smallest telescope the number is 
enormously increased. The Yerkes telescope, 
forty inches in diameter, probably reaches over 
one hundred million.* Outside of the most 
powerful help science has brought to sweep the 
sky, what millions of trillions of God's stars 
there may be, who can tell? Man's estimate 
stops because with all his telescopic aid he can 
see no farther. When God comes forth and talks 
about "the whole creation" how much do we 
know of what He is saying, save by such hints 
as He gives us in His Word? We are told that 
the earth is one of the smallest of God's creations, 
a tiny planet in one solar system. How many of 



♦Young's Manual of Astronomy. 

42 



Resurrection Order — Third Epoch 

these systems there are, centering each around 
its own sun, our finite research cannot tell us. 
Has God no intellectual, moral or spiritual pur- 
pose in creation save what we find in this tiny 
earth-ball? These countless systems that fill the 
heavens, *'the work of His fingers," are they just 
innumerable piles of matter, setting forth His 
wondrous skill, as the mechanics of His hands, 
without however any inner meaning, intelligence 
or response to His heart or His Spirit ? Deep 
suggestions to the contrary are given us in this 
little adverb "then" of I. Cor. 15 :24, in His Word 
of Deut. 7:9, I Chron. 16:15, Ps. 105:8, a 
covenant with His creatures to "a thousand 
generations," and this word in Rom. 8:22 "the 
whole creation" released into the glorious liberty 
of the children of God. 

God is love. No other reason can be given 
for the existence of the human race than this. 
Love is outgoing in its very nature and essence; 
must find something upon which to bestow itself 
and its blessings ; something it can make happy. 
Hence comes all the delight of natural parenthood 
and the begetting of intelligent, responsive beings 
that can reciprocate love. But natural parentage 
in the human family is a feeble reflection in a sin 
tainted race of the Divine Fatherhood. God did 
not make the race for the earth's sake, but the 
earth as a home for the human race. Thus 
Jesus gives us heaven's estimate when He shows 
that one soul is worth more than all the world. 

43 



Resurrection Papers 

Divine Love knew the eternal felicity of an 
intelligence that would choose to be forever a 
response to God. Eternal reciprocity with Infinite 
Love! ! ! Hence He created the race of man, 
gave them their probationary term, the earth- 
life, with the power to choose or reject Him. 
In Adam the race fell, but out of that fall God 
is bringing forth a redeemed portion in a plan 
whose blaze of moral splendor shall gild His 
glory and glorify them. 

Eph. 1 :12, "That we should be to the praise of His 

glory ;" 
Eph. 1:14, "Unto the praise of His glory;" 
Eph. 1 :18, "The riches of the glory of His inheritance 

in the saints." 

It's joy no powers of description, no conception 
we now have, can adequately set forth. 

If He has purposed as much in one of every 
thousand of His other worlds, namely, to create 
upon it a race able to respond to God, and made 
in it His highest form of intelligence, a creature 
with a free-will, which involved power to act 
with or against the Creator, and if any of these 
races have suffered under Satan's solicitations a 
similar fall to that of the race of Adam, then 
there is very profound depth in the words "the 
creature (Greek, creation, same word here and 
in verses 19 and 21 as "whole creation" of verse 
22) was made subject to vanity (i. e. emptiness, 
unattainment) not willingly, but by reason of 
Him who hath subjected the same in hope." 

We know from many scriptures Satan wrought 

44 



Resurrection Order — Third Epoch 

man's downfall, and we may hypothetically con- 
clude that if other races exist and have fallen it 
is through Satan's influence ; yet here God speaks 
of Himself as having shut them up, or made them 
liable to the conditions of the fall, for they could 
not be of free-will without this liability, God hav- 
ing the purpose of a larger hope in it all. Shut 
up to the fall, that He might shut up the fallen 
ones to His offers of a free and a full salvation; 
and He goes on to say that the whole creation 
"shall be delivered from the bondage of corrup- 
tion into the glorious liberty of the children of 
God." 

Of course when He says the whole creation 
shall be delivered, He uses words hyperbolically 
as did Paul when he wrote that in his day the 
Gospel "was preached to every creature which is 
under heavens." Col. 1 :23. Again, that the 
Gospel brings forth fruit in all the world as it 
doth in you. "V. 6. Not in that age or any other 
has literally all the world brought forth fruit to 
God, or every creature had the Gospel given 
them; yet in a very remarkable sense was the 
Gospel disseminated generally by the apostolic 
church. Under the inspiration of the Spirit this 
intense expression was allowed Paul for emphasis. 
Many such are seen in the Old Testament, as when 
God says of Abraham's seed, "it shall be as the 
stars of the heaven," "the sands of the sea in- 
numerable," etc. 

Thus we see in this Rom. 8:19-24 passage God 

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Resurrection Papers 

unfolds His best scheme of mercy for the 
creatures He has made. He could not make the 
highest order of being without endowing him 
with free-will ; less than that was to make a mere 
machine for God's running. Then while He 
stood aside and let that creaturely will deflect 
from Him to Satan, what He permitted Satan to 
do, He speaks of Himself as doing. Frequently 
throughout the Scriptures He thus speaks of 
His pennissive providence. "All things are of 
God;" "Is there evil in the city and the Lord 
hath not done it?" etc., etc., but all these are 
really permissive and not causative. 

Everything now in God's world, (shall we say 
in God's universe?) is subject to vanity, except 
those precious souls who have let God come in — 
"the whole creation groaneth and travaileth to- 
gether in pain until now." This is the vanity, 
the emptiness, the unattainment God has per- 
mitted. In this permissive sense God has sub- 
jected it; but why? In hope. Let us examine 
that hope, for here comes in the wonders of His 
purpose, the richness of His design. He says 
this groaning, travailing condition shall be 
delivered, though now they wait, and not only 
they are waiting, but a certain class of believers 
wait (they who have the first fruits of the Spirit 
and by reason thereof are also a groaning 
travailing company). Both wait for what? The 
ADOPTION. In an initial and spiritual sense children 
of God have the "spirit of adoption" (Rom. 8:15) 

46 



Resurrection Order — Third Epoch 

but in the ultimate, full and dispensational sense, 
we still wait for it, God waits for it, creation's 
release waits for it; "waiting for the adoption: 
to wit, the redemption of our body." 

There is a salvation by faith, the initial salva- 
tion, in which, bless God, some of us are walk- 
ing today, but there is a salvation by hope (vs. 
24, 25). If we want to come in to our ultimate 
salvation we must lay hold of this hope. A hope 
how grand ! It is not merely the redemption of 
our bodies, though that is involved, as the greater 
includes the less, but the redemption of our body. 
Oh how much the apostle speaks in Corinthians, 
Ephesians, Colossians of the new man! Christ 
its Head ! the church its body ; individual 
believers; joints, sinews, bands, members of one 
body. 

Wondrous figure our God has chosen for His 
design ; The New Man ; Christ, the head and 
body; for each are spoken of as Christ (see the 
body spoken of as Christ, I. Cor. 12:12; as 
Christ the Bread, I. Cor. 10:16, 17). In fact 
there is a deep, ultimate sense in which Christ 
has not yet been seen. In the Word we have the 
three Christs, i. e. the three aspects of the Christ. 
In the Old Testament the Christ of the types, or 
the typical Christ; in the New Testament the 
personal Christ, our blessed Lord ; then the main 
endeavor of the epistles is to bring forth the 
mystical Christ, when Christ the Head shall be 
joined to His mystical body. 

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Resurrection Papers 

Contemplate this figure of Christ the Head 
and body. How deep ! In nature how deHcate 
the union of head and body. An atom of matter 
that gets in anywhere between the voHtion of the 
head and any part of the body — how exquisite 
the torture ! The circulation interrupted, foreign 
substance deposited; to joint, intestine, spine, etc. 
what agony ! Action of any muscle or joint 
independent of the will of the head, any or all 
of this is dire disease. In normal life all parts 
of the body move harmoniously, unconscious of 
themselves under the volition of the head. You 
say, "I will run upstairs," never conscious of the 
limbs that carry you, or the many muscles, joints 
and sinews set in action for the purpose. "I must 
write that letter," and you sit at your desk 
recognizing your personality conveying your 
thoughts ; all the powers of your being in health 
so yielded that neither they nor you recognize 
them. Hallelujah ! "So also is Christ." In the 
mystical body of Christ is that 'T ;" Christ is that 
personality. "I live yet not I, but Christ." "Yield 

ye your members as instruments unto God." 

This is the ideal Christian life. This will be the 
ultimate life of the corporate body of the mystical 
Christ. All the component parts, each individual 
overcomer, has fallen into his place in his re- 
lation to Christ and to every other member of 
the body. Oh, how Christ has suffered through- 
out the two-thousand years of this dispensation 
by a body filled more or less with independent life 

48 



Resurrection Order — Third Epoch 

and action of its own! Through the church He 
would have made an exhibition of Himself, as 
daily your natural life exhibits you along the lines 
of your body and mind, and people see what you 
are through the constant action of your body and 
mind. 

But the Christ ! 'Tis as if a being of noble parts 
were bound to a body afflicted with St. Vitus' 
dance. Involuntary and uncontrollable indepen- 
dent action of nerves and muscles defeat His 
movements and belie His purpose. If He would 
rise, the contrary minded and self-acting muscles 
pull Him back to the chair ; in attempting to sit, 
they jerk Him up; if He would open a door, a 
long argument and firm action of His will, must 
bring the hands to bungling action. If some 
muscles were compliant, others were resistant. 
Such has been the spectacle of what has been 
named the body of Christ for two-thousand 
years ! Why ? Because the majority of Christians 
were in a mixed state, part natural, part Divine. 
And "the natural mind is enmity against God, 
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither 
indeed can be." (Rom. 8:7; Rom. 7). But when 
God has caught away from among the dead and 
from among the living, and gathered together 
the number of the full overcomers, all others for 
the time-being sifted out, they will fall into place 
with Him and with each other perfectly, for they 
have lost all but to do His bidding every moment 
and on every line of their being — grown "up into 

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Resurrection Papers 

Him in all things, which is the Head, even 
Christ," from whom all the body by joints and 
bands having nourishment ministered, and knit 
together, increaseth with the increase of God. 
Oh happy day ! when Christ shall be manifested 
and not calumniated by the life of His people. 
Then will be a full, an ultimate answer to the 

prayer of Jno. 17, "that they may be one that 

the world may believe that Thou hast sent me"; 

"that they may be made perfect in one that 

the world may believe that Thou hast sent me;" 

There is the birth of a male-child, a new man, 
portrayed in Rev. 12. We see that upon his 
birth he becomes an instrument or moving power 
in God's hands. Immediately the man child is 
born he is caught up to God and His throne. As 
he goes up Satan loses his place in the heaven- 
lies. He falls to the earth. When later the 
Man-child, Christ, Head and body comes to the 
earth, Satan falls into the abyss wherever this 
redeemed body goes, it is God's victory. A lock- 
smith may be a long time making a certain 
key, but it does not take long to open the box 
when he gets the key. 

Jesus is spoken of in Rev. 3 :7 as "He that 
hath the key of David," and when He gets His 
bride, when He gets the sacred, mystical body 
of Christ He will have the key. Then we shall 
see how swiftly tribulation events will ripen, the 
millennium age will follow upon its closing up, 
the New Heavens and the New Earth succeed- 
so 



Resurrection Order — Third Epoch 

ing ; then on out through the vast after ages when 
in the universe God will remember His faith- 
fulness to a thousand generations. In another 
chapter we will say more of this Body and its 
career; this Body through whose coming forth, 
ends creation's wait, and begins creation's 
deliverance "from the bondage of corruption into 
the glorious liberty of the children of God." 



51 




V 

Life of First Resurrectionists 

N this paper we deal with the 
qualifications and career of the 
first-resurrectionists. The dis- 
placement of the human by the 
Divine, that is to say the spiritual 
death of the natural man is the 
sole qualification, because where 
and only as far as self died, can 
Christ live instead. 

Therefore, wherever the victorious Body of 
Christ, (which is the corporate body of the full 
overcomers) is shown, it is as a picture of death, 
and life out of death. In the nature of things it 
must be so, since the life of the body is in its 
Head. Thus, whether we look at the picture in 
Revelation 20, where we find that each resurrec- 
tionist was either literally or spiritually beheaded 
for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus ; 
or at that of the caught-away ones, the man-child 
of Revelation 12, where their character is shown 
as overcomers through the blood, the word of 
their testimony, and "they loved not their lives 
unto the death/' or at the figure of the resurrec- 
tion grain of I. Cor. 15:36-42 "that which thou 
sowest is not quickened except it die," the figure 
is invariably that of death. What is sown into 
death spiritual, is raised into glory spiritual. Thus 



52 



Life of First Resurrectionists 

we are enjoined, "Always bearing about in the 
body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life 
also of Jesus, might be made manifest in our 
body." Hence the profound significance of Jesus' 
words, ''He that findeth his life shall lose it, and 
he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it." 
Matt. 10:39. 

Ah ! they that are consenting now, moment by 
moment, to the transmuting from the human to 
the Divine, through moment by moment dying 
out, that Christ may thus live and move through 
them — they are being qualified for first resurrec- 
tionists. Such will never need the Great White 
Throne judgment, for the whole earth-life is 
their judgment day. They have consented to 
judge self. "If we would judge ourselves we 
should not be judged." I. Cor. 11:31,32 — not 
come into that judgment hour which is to try 
the world. "When we are judged we are chastened 
of the Lord." The infinite condescension of His 
dealings to rid us of ourselves ! Did we but 
recognize what there was to gain or what to lose, 
with how deep gratitude should we welcome 
every gleam of light that discovers self lurking 
anywhere! No matter whence it came or from 
whom, we w^ould take that light as the tender 
"chastening of the Lord," in order "that we should 
not be condemned with the world;" that is, that 
we might not appear with them at the Great 
White Throne, sharing with them, more or less 
of its judgment of our works, though the life is 

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Resurrection Papers 

secure with the Lamb. But what of that large 
Christian company who, as second-resurrection- 
ists, come up to that Throne with their names 
written in the Lamb's Book of Life (Rev. 20:15) 
"saved yet so as by fire?" Their Hves are saved 
out of its judgment, because upon Christ the true 
foundation, yet their service (their works) have 
gone info it, because so mixed with self that much 
of it, as wood, hay or stubble is burned up. I. 
Cor. 3:11-15. 

Oh what a fixing of one's self to a plane far 
below one's privilege in all that ! What dwarf age ! 
"Hurt of the second death ;" the life has escaped 
its powers, but the works have gone into it! 
"He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the 
second death." Rev. 2:11. For while these 
"hurt" ones are being adjudged "with the world," 
in the world's hour, and with some measure of 
the world's loss, full overcomers, first-resurrec- 
tionists, have already been "in Christ," "with 
Christ," "by Christ," ruling in blessedness upon 
the earth for a thousand years. And now en- 
throned with Him, they are judging the world, 
these saints of the second-resurrection, and angels, 
all of which is preparatory to their passing on in 
Christ, their Head, to His more expansive rule 
in the New Heavens and New Earth and His 
redemptive work in His universe to a thousand 
generations. This is their career. 

No human thought can follow the glory of God 
in these obedient ones whose natural life has been 

54 



Life of First Resurrectionists 

wholly displaced by Jesus as their life — "not I 
but Christ." They are His inheritance, as, thank 
God, He is theirs; "The riches of the glory of 
His inheritance in the saints!" With bodies like 
the body of His glory, whose effulgence is de- 
scribed: "His eyes .... as a flame of fire," 
"His feet like unto fine brass as if they burned 
in a furnace," "His voice as the sound of many 
waters," "out of His mouth .... a sharp two- 
edged sword," "His countenance as the sun 
shineth in his strength." Rev. 1:13-16. ("Then 
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
kingdom of their Father." Matt. 13:43.) A 
body whose transcendency of all laws of gravi- 
tation is shown in such words as these, "a cloud 
received Him out of their sight;" "the doors 
being shut where the disciples were assembled 
. . . came Jesus and stood in the midst," "after 
that He appeared in another form unto two 
of them," etc., appearing, disappearing at His 
blessed will in salvation's purpose — bolts, bars, 
height, depth, neither let nor hindrance to Him. 

With bodies like this body of His glory, these 
first-resurrectionists wing their way, chariots of 
God, chariots of light, conveying Him while He 
conveys them, each an unclouded expression of 
God; each, heaven's own radiancy of light, pass- 
ing on into sphere after sphere of moral darkness, 
changing its bondage of corruption into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God. 

Even in the terrestrial glory of restored Israel, 

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Resurrection Papers 

those who shall be instruments in God's hands to 
that restoration, are spoken of thus, "and 
Saviours shall come up on Mount Zion, to judge 
the mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be 
the Lord's." Obadiah 21. In how much richer, 
fuller sense shall these first-resurrectionists of 
the celestial glory (for Abraham's earthly seed 
are the ''glory of the terrestrial," while these are 
the "glory celestial") be accounted Saviours in 
the after ages, and through the universe. In- 
dividually and collectively they have become 
through the full death of self, full nonentities, 
or full emptinesses for the possession of the life 
of Another ; thus they can fully express the glory 
of the Head. "He that loseth his life, shall find 
it." Self displaced by Christ, ultimately, ab- 
solutely ! What can it mean ? 

Ah it were better to be the veriest idiot m the 
earth-life crying like Jack the huckster, 

"I am a poor sinner and nothing at all, 
But Jesus Christ is my all in all," 

as he peddled his few wares and lived his obedient 
but very simple, narrow life, than to be the 
mightiest intellect coupled with a spirit that sways 
tens of thousands for Christ, and be less "noth- 
ing at all" and see less clearly that Christ is the 
''All in Alir For what are giant intellects to 
that which the on-going souls are to be? What 
is a Sir Isaac Newton and all he wrought to the 
constant expansion in the millions upon billions 

56 



Life of First Resurrectionists 

of the Ages of Eternity to that idiot who has the 
"mind of Christ" "in whom are hid all the 
treasures of wisdom and of knowledge !" 

Spiritually, mentally, in Christian work every 
way, what room in Christ to grow ! In the Ages 
of Eternity what time to grow ! With Christ 
the Head expressing Himself along the lines of 
His Body, to a universe, unto a thousand gene- 
rations, what means of growth ! Think you it 
pays to lay down life continually that He may 
ever increasingly come in? Oh with what tender 
yearning God is always saying, "Give room, that 
/ may dwell." Can we not now see what animated 
the breast of Paul when he cried, "I count all 
things but loss, for the excellency of the know- 
ledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Phil. 3 :7-15. 
'Tis as if he said, "I know I am a child of God, 
I know He sanctifies me, I know I have the bap- 
tism in the Holy Ghost and fire; I knozv He is 
using me up and down the known earth, but I 
do not know that I am a first-resurrectionist. 
There is a prize of the "upward calling," (Gr. 
for "high calling") there is a deep maturity that 
I, in common with my fellow-Christians am in 
danger of losing; there is an out-resurrection 
prior, previous, to the resurrection of the majority 
of the believers, "if that by any means" I may 
attain to that "out-resurrection from among the 
dead." I cast aside "every weight" and run 
toward the goal, "forgetting those things which 
are behind," things of my sin, my mistakes, my 

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Resurrection Papers 

rich experiences, my successful Christian work, 
etc., etc., "and reaching forth unto those things 
which are before, I press toward the mark for 
the prize." But Paul, what is the prize? "To 
be of the 'first fruits ; to have the character of a 
first-resurrectionist; to be of the very Body of 
Christ, to be forever of His Bride ! The satisfac- 
tion of His heart ! The correspondence of His 
salvation-purpose toward a groaning, travailing 
creation ! To be part of the key in His hands by 
which He unlocks to bliss other races in other 
ages ; to be an absolute unit with Him, as in 
normal, physical life a healthy joint or sinew is 
one with the head that calls it into action, or holds 
it in rest; to be evermore an answer to God." 
"Brethren," says Paul, "not as though I had 
already attained, either were already perfect 
. . . . I count not myself to have appre- 
hended." If this position is scriptural, how un- 
scriptural is some of the talk we hear today, 
"/ am of the bride of Christ/' "/ will meet you 
in the air/' etc. a flippant assurance that they are 
first-resurrectionists. Paul was a candidate for 
it. He followed on, recognizing that he had been 
apprehended of Christ Jesus for this very thing, 
but to make his calling and election sure there 
must be a continued, cooperative apprehending 
on his part, "if that I may apprehend." Rotherham 
puts this, "if also I may lay hold (of that) for 
which also I was laid hold of by Christ." It has 

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Life of First Resurrectionists 

something of the force of that other word, "Many 
are called but few are chosen." 

We see how many are called to salvation but 
only those who choose to respond does God 
choose. Many are called to sanctification, but 
again those only are chosen who draw to the 
call. God's choice falls on ours. So on every 
line in grace God calls widely but few are chosen ; 
those few who choose the upward calls of grace 
upon their choice falls God's seal — He chooses 
them or empowers them to be what they choose 
to be. Paul conceived it was big business to 
respond to the call and be of the bride, of the 
body, first-resurrectionists, to be Christians of 
a maturity that preceded by a thousand years the 
resurrection of other Christians. Thus he bent 
his back, as it were, to the task of life-long un- 
intermittent dying out to self, like his blessed 
Master who, "pleased not Himself," from Mary's 
womb to Calvary's cross. Paul went on under 
the perpetual purpose "Not I, not I, I live, yet 
not I but Christ!" In the humility of true 
holiness his constant attitude was "I count not 
myself to have apprehended." Here if you will 
drop out of this passage the italics supplied by 
the translators to make as they thought the mean- 
ing clearer, you will find he says he had appre- 
hended "but one thing," that is, the attitude 
necessary to accomplish his purpose. An un- 
flinching purpose for full maturity in "the know- 
ledge of Jesus," the "power of His resurrection," 

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Resurrection Papers 

(which is the power of the Holy Spirit) the 
"fellowship of His sufferings," the conformity 
''to His death'' Phil. 3:10. This was the only 
path into first-resurrection as Paul conceived it. 

Ah ! the victory-companies ever carry palms in 
their hands, for the palm-tree is a symbol of 
constant life out of death. As the tree springs 
up from the first fronds that shoot forth, lying 
low near the ground, every series of fronds dies, 
to give place to a higher form of fronded life, 
and so on and on until the mighty tree has reach- 
ed its full height of sixty or seventy feet, its 
bare and rugged trunk, round after round, just 
death marks of the fallen fronds ; thus the age 
and height of the tree is counted by the number 
of deaths it has undergone. So also the "trees 
of the Lord's planting." "Life out of death" 
cry the palm victors as they wave their glad 
palms. 

Oh ! with what solemn gladness Paul pressed 
forward, crying, "Brethren, I count not myself 
to have apprehended, but one thing; forgetting 
those things which are behind, and reaching 
forth, to those things which are before, I press 
toward the mark, for the prize of the high (up- 
ward) calling of God in Christ Jesus." He 
could not count himself a fully finished work of 
God, but he had learned the soul-attitude which 
if persevered in, would bring it about. He chose 
it and God chose to divinely energize him to 
maintain that attitude. He was not only one of 

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Life of First Resurrectionists 

the many called but of the few chosen. 
Hallelujah! Oh how much it meant to Christ 
to have in Paul a bride-soul ! How much it 
meant to God to have in Paul the making of one 
of those sons (not children, but come-of -age-sons) 
of God, for whose uncovering, unveiling, revela- 
tion, all creation has been and is still waiting. 

Inasmuch as grace had made Paul a lover 
did he pant to be a full satisfaction to the heart 
of Jesus, as a bride-soul ; in as much as grace had 
made him a missionary, and a lover of captive 
ones, did he pant to be part of the instrument in 
God's hands for the release of "all creation." 
And does the writer and reader of these pages 
pant to satisfy this double purpose of God, and 
like Paul have we chosen to go the whole length 
of our funeral, that it may be always, everywhere 
and every how "not I but Christ?" Then may 
we humbly hope that God's choice will fall upon 
ours; that in us Jesus may "see His seed," (Isa. 
53:10) the precious reproduction of Himself. 
Thus may we be ready for the now soon-coming 
translation, or if Jesus tarry yet a little, told off 
for first resurrection. 

"O Love Divine, how good Thou art! 

When shall I find my willing heart, 
All taken up by Thee? 

I thirst, I faint, I die to prove. 
The greatness of Redeeming Love 

The love of God through me." 

Flowing to all creation. 

River-bed ! God Himself the River of Love ! 
Jesus has said out of the believer "shall flow 

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Resurrection Papers 

rivers of living water." He did not say a river, 
one mighty Mississippi or Amazon; He did not 
say two rivers, or two hundred. Creatures utterly 
yielded to God as bed to its River, for "a thousand 
generations," to all creation, what expansion in 
association with God ! ! Perhaps Jesus could not 
in truth limit it to "out of him shall flow one 
thousand Amazons." So he has left it unlimited. 
Eternally Love's channel — "that the love where- 
with Thou hast loved Me, may be in them, and I 
in them." "Christ in you the hope of (creation's) 
glory." 



62 




VI 

Training of First Resurrectionists 

EVELATION— the name by which 
the last book of the Bible is known 
— is a word which in the Greek 
means unveiling or uncovering. 
Hence the significance of the title ; 
the unveiling or uncovering of 
Jesus Christ, i. e., *'The Revelation 
of Jesus Christ," as He moves 
about in the closing up of this, and the opening 
out of other dispensations. 

In the forefront of the book He gives us the 
picture of the seven churches, and then within 
them, as a circle within a circle, the full over- 
comers. With anointed eyes, we have been see- 
ing in this series of papers, that all the glories 
of future dispensations are delayed, held back, 
till the full number of these overcomers is brought 
out, or to take another figure of God (Revelation 
19:7), it is not till the Lamb's wife hath made 
herself ready that the marriage supper and suc- 
ceeding events take place. The Greek word 
"revelation" has the force of unveiling or un- 
covering as of a statue already set. Thus when 
Romans 8: 19 declares the whole creation is wait- 
ing for the "manifestation" of the sons of God, 
it is this Greek word, revelation, and gives the 
sense of an hour, when the veil shall be lifted 



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Resurrection Papers 

as on an inauguration day. We can not unveil 
a statue until it has been made ready and set. 
Thus for six thousand years Christ has been 
waiting and creation has been waiting for the 
full number to be made up of these **sons," that, 
gathered together in one and joined with their 
sacred, mystical Head they may be unveiled, 
manifested. Many of these "sons" have been 
matured and gathered to some blissful Paradise, 
where they prove "to die is gain," and are there 
awaiting the first resurrection. You will notice 
this is not the unveiling or manifestation of the 
children of God, but "sons," a word having the 
sense of grown-up ones (see Alford), those come 
of age. As in the United States none are allowed 
to vote, or use governmental power until they 
have matured to a certain age, never allowed to 
come into inheritance of property till thus grown 
up, so these sons of God are more than mere 
children of God. As we can not unveil a statue 
till it has been made ready, so each joint, sinew, 
muscle, nerve, in the sacred mystical body of 
Christ, can only fall into its place when each and 
all perfected of God have come to full maturity. 
Do we now see the deep significance of the words 
in Romans 8 : 19-23, that not only does all crea- 
tion continue to groan and travail in pain till 
now, waiting for the manifestation of the sons 
of God; but ''ourselves also, which have the 
■first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan 
within ourselves, waiting." In I. Corinthians 

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Training of First Resurrectionists 

12 : 13-26 we are taught — what as a fact in nature 
we daily experience — ^that disease in one member, 
even one tiny nerve, more or less impoverishes 
the body, land enrichment in one carries its meas- 
ure of life and health to all. 

In a healthy organism a body is one, and one 
with its head, not conscious of many parts, nor 
yet conscious of itself, but instinct with its living 
head. "So also is Christ." I. Corinthians 12 : 12. 
Not only is the body waiting, but these also who 
are in making for that Body, groan as they wait 
with a sense of incompleteness — of intangible, 
yet unbearable loss. As soldiers, maimed upon 
a battlefield, tell us that ever after, the missing 
foot or arm seems to clamour for care, and often 
wakens them in the night to report itself cold, 
feverish, or nervously twitching, and as physicians 
tell us that the whole body of such is enfeebled by 
the loss it has sustained, and life itself must be 
shortened thereby — thus, in the spiritual world, 
this Body of Christ in its incompleteness has 
laboured and groaned to supply its missing parts. 
"And not only they, the whole creation, but our- 
selves also, which have the first fruits of the 
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
waiting for the adoption, to-wit, the redemption 
of our Body." Romans 8 : 23. The Holy Ghost 
life in these first fruit believers is not only panting 
in them for their own full, rounded out develop- 
ment in Christ, but through them for other Chris- 
tians to come up to the same high level. On 

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Resurrection Papers 

howsoever high a rung of that golden ladder, 
Christ, these have set their feet, they are still 
stretching forth to mount the one above, at the 
same time reaching down to induce some lower- 
rung believer to come up higher. 

This new nature, yearning, stretching, reach- 
ing, groaning in them, like the early bungling 
efforts of a babe in the use of its new-found limbs, 
has this pre-eminent value — it is teaching the 
baby to handle, to think, to walk. It is developing 
the baby. 

Thus the Holy Ghost, by what we call Christian 
work, is developing each as a warrior-child — the 
Manchild — for the battlefields of after dispensa- 
tions. How important to follow the Spirit as to 
where we work, how we work, when we rest; 
in the ministry of beneficence, the Word, or of 
prayer. "As many las are led by the Spirit of 
God," they are the sons of God for whom crea- 
tion waits. Romans 8. 

Supreme is the question we are raising in this 
paper, "What is the training and discipline that 
brings forth these first-fruit believers ? those who 
belong to the first resurrection ?" Of all inquiries, 
this is vital, to Christ, to us, to all creation ! For, 
in the unveiling of these, what breadth, depth, 
and length of salvation streams! Salvation 
flowed in measure in the Jewish age, when Christ 
was dimly discerned through the types and shad- 
ows of that dispensation, the age of the typical 
Christ, but oh ! in how much fuller measure did 

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Training of First Resurrectionists 

salvation flow when He was unveiled, and be- 
came a living Person on the earth, the personal 
Christ. Thus has the River of God broadened 
in the Christian dispensation, not however in 
tliat measure of increase, but with geometrical 
ratio will salvation pour, when, head and body 
joined He is unveiled as the Mystical Christy for 
which "all creation" has been groaning and tra- 
vailing in waiting throughout the ages. Por- 
tentous indeed the question, what is the train- 
ing AND DISCIPLINE OF FIRST RESURRECTIONISTS? 

The Holy Spirit Himself is the Teacher, and 
when "baptized in the Holy Ghost and fire," then 
education begins on this higher plane. Life, as 
God permits it to touch us, the school, our daily 
providences are the tools in this Masterwork- 
man's hands whereby He brings forth in us the 
full image of Christ. Right where we are is a 
Divinity school till God moves us elsewhere, 
then the new station is Trinity College. If we 
are compliant, gladsome in God's hands. He will 
take us through freshman, sophomore, junior and 
senior years, graduate us with our B. A., our M. 
A., and give us post-graduate courses with pro- 
fessorships galore. He just loves to educate His 
willing compliant souls. But more than we per- 
ceive, we control this matter of our education. 
Said the writer to a friend in the South where 
many years ago she was holding meetings, "Your 
daughter Lucy is a very beautiful girl." "Yes," 
she replied, "Lucy is a dear child, but she has 

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Resurrection Papers 

one very grave fault, she is so sensitive. Her 
father and I are afraid to rebuke her, it takes 
so long for her to recover from the attack of 
self-pity into which the slightest reproof plunges 
her; consequently her improvement is slow, for 
we have to wait so long for her to recover from 
one thing before we can touch another." As she 
spoke, in my heart God said, "And that is My 
trouble with you. My child." I cried, "Lord de- 
liver me from all self-pity, that You may go on 
rapidly with Your work." The three score years 
and ten have reaped away many of God's dear 
children, while God has been permitted to go 
but a little way with them in the schooling. But 
with the Holy Spirit las Teacher and God's provi- 
dences the school, what may not be accomplished 
if we are still in His hands ; the hand of His 
grace. "God is able to make all grace abound 
toward you," and the hand of His providence "in 
everything enriched by Him." A blind young 
girl had been powerfully converted to God from 
a very worldly gay life, and went to a Christian 
training school, which also was a house of the 
Lord's healing. She hoped to get training for 
Christian service and the opening of her eyes. 
But her life seemed full of disappointing, baffling 
circumstances. All were so busy, frequently there 
was no one to lead her back and forth to the 
class room; when she got there, being also 
quite deaf, she lost much of the instruction, and 
she so eager to learn. Discouraged, she sat alone 

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Training of First Resurrectionists 

one day in her dark world, the tears raining down. 
When should she be ready for Christian service! 
Suddenly a bright light filled the room, and the 
center of the halo. Oh joy ! was the blessed Jesus 
Himself. He was sitting absorbed in a piece of 
work in His hands. He never looked up, so in- 
tent on His task ! She, too, now watched it. It 
was a vase of rare beauty of shape (God's 
thought in every human life is), and He was 
moulding a wreath of most exquisite leaves and 
flowers with which He was garlanding it. Ever 
and anon He smiled that smile of His, as if de- 
lighted (enraptured) with His work. After, as 
it seemed to her, a long time. He looked up with 
such grave tenderness and said, "This vase I am 
working on is you, but oh, how you hinder me, 
because you do not keep still." God never let 
her receive much from the teachings of the 
schools, but in after life, in the different coun- 
tries where He served Himself by her, those who 
knew her, realized much of the beauty and fra- 
grance with which the Lord had garlanded her 
life. 

"Who teacheth like Him?" "The Lord shall 
be thy confidence." If we will give Him an un- 
bounded confidence and recognize that in our 
life whatever is, is right, because for the "new 
creature," realizing that "all things are of God," 
how still we will keep ! How rapidly He will 
work! One straight line the Lord gives us to 
go by every moment; in every trifling event, or 

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in the most stupendous of the day; it is "giving 
thanks always for all things." Why in "every- 
thing give thanks?" Because "this (thing) is 
the will of God in Christ Jesus, concerning you." 
II. Thess. 5 : 18. "The work of our maturing 
consists simply in receiving from one moment to 
another all the troubles and duties of our state 
as veils, under which God hides Himself and 
gives Himself to us. The moment which brings 
a duty to be performed, or a trouble to be borne, 
brings also a message declaring to us the will 
of God.* A Christian worker in Chicago some 
years ago was hastening from one side of the 
city to the other, to catch an outgoing train to 
hold a meeting. As she was making a crossing, 
hurrying for her car, a teamster with a wagon 
heavily loaded with long iron rails, came slowly 
creeping along. He had the right of way, she 
must stop on the further corner, and see her 
car go on the Chicago draw-bridge, and think 
perhaps the bridge will be up when the next 
car comes along. A feeling of impatience and 
anxiety was trying to work up in her heart, 
when, as she lifted it to God, came the sweet 
thought, "It is the Lord!" "Shall I not stand 
and wait for my Lord to go by ?" she said as the 
long slow thing crept on. Yes, she lost her car, 
Chicago's most trying bridge was up for eight 
minutes, or so, to let a vessel pass while she sat 
in the next car waiting. She had missed her 

•Translated from a French mystic of some centuries 
ago. 

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Training of First Resurrectionists 

train. Who would take the meeting for which 
she was advertised in the distant city that day? 
But peace reigned within for she had seen the 
Lord on the load of iron, she had had the privil- 
ege ot standing to let Him pass. As she sat be- 
lated in the railroad station, waiting some hours 
for the next train, she knew the same Lord Who 
hindered her going had presided at her lost 
meeting, and in her heart, what joy! 

There is no substance in holiness but as it is 
found in the Divine will, which is ever presenting 
itself to us under the veil of the most ordinary 
duties and the crosses which they bring. In 
these God's hand is hidden to uphold and bear 
us. He vouchsafes Himself to mark out the 
path which the soul is to take as it gradually 
advances. The moment which brings a duty to 
be performed or a trouble to be borne, brings 
also a message declaring to us the will of God 
now. The soul has but one thing to do, to 
grasp hold of God, who offers Himself directly 
to it, at every step, at every moment, in every 
object which it meets with, in its onward course. 
He who recognizes his King under the coarse 
garb of a common peasant, will receive him very 
differently from another, who, thinking he sees 
only a person of the lowest class treats him ac- 
cordingly. In the same way, the soul which sees 
the will of God, in the smallest things, and in 
things the most trying and overwhelming, re- 
ceives them all with joy and reverence. And 

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/Resurrection Papers 

so that from which others fear and shrink, the 
faithful soul opens all its doors to receive with 
honor. The providences of our life are the jew- 
elled fingers of our God bejewelling us as we lie 
plastic clay in the Potter's hand. He is working 
as much on the jewels when He brings us to en- 
forced inactivity as when using us in Christian 
service. As truly bejewelling us when our frame 
is under the rack of sickness, as in the after mo- 
ment when He touches us with Divine health; 
when He spoils our reputation in the making of 
character, as when He lets men see God in us. 
Bereavements, poverty, attacks of the enemy upon 
our body, upon our Christian work, the million- 
fold forms of suffering through which He passes 
us. He who says at the beginning, "Many are the 
afflictions of the righteous," all these are the tools 
by which the Jeweller fashions His work. The 
Christian souls that outstrip others in the race 
are those who thank God for each thing in its 
hour and its moment, "Giving thanks always for 
all things/' "Yes," you say, "but some things are 
things of the devil to be resisted." Then thank 
God they have come as opportunity for resistance 
of the devil (soldiers are only trained on battle- 
iields), and stand fast in the Lord in the victory 
of "giving thanks always for all things." If 
you will obey first, you will come to much under- 
standing through obedience, "If any man will 

do he shall know." John 7:17. Lift the 

dignity of your obedience up to its true place. 

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Training of First Resurrectionists 

Put first things first. It is not first that you may 
be fruitful in Christian service, but that you may 
"be conformed to the image of God's Son," that 
Christ may see in you "His seed" (law of the 
seed, "after his kind," Gen. 1:11). Remember 
that "creation waits" for the unveiling of these 
"sons of God." Romans 8 : 19. If seen in its 
due perspective each occasion is one of gaining 
a victory for "all creation." How ennobling, 
then, every opportunity of trial or test, every 
union with the Divine will. A child of God on 
a sick bed was taught several things by visions. 
Among the rest in a dream comes the picture 
of a gigantic battlefield. Myriad hosts emerged 
from a dense darkness and covered the field. 
They emitted darkness as they moved. Only at 
one point in the field was there light streaming 
down. As the eye followed that light to its 
source, it was Jesus Himself from whom all the 
light emanated. They — ^a comparatively tiny 
company who moved in its beams, taken posses- 
sion of by that light — radiated it wherever they 
turned. Though so overwhelming in numbers, 
always the dark hosts fled before the light. These 
light-warriors, insignificant in numbers and of 
themselves, were possessed of the light — 'their 
only weapon — and it radiated from them when- 
ever and wherever they came into union with 
the Divine will, so that the dear one awoke from 
her dream exclaiming, "If I may but tie my shoe- 
string in the will of God, it brings something of 

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Resurrection Papers 

the defeat of Satan and the victory of Jesus on 
life's battlefield." Yes, and as the horizon widens 
we perceive that the victories of mortal life have 
their tremendous bearings upon the "ages to 
come." Eph. 2 : 7. Hence each child of the 
Father may joyously cry, "I am gaining a vic- 
tory not merely as a Christian soul, not merely 
for my day or generation, but in the (to unanoint- 
ed eyes) trifling victory of this hour, I am bring- 
ing nearer the release of a groaning, travailing 
creation!" In the development of His own, God 
can afford things that do not enter into the scope 
of the Christian worker's thought. Years ago 
the writer was taken over a Royal Pottery in 
England, called Minions. Oh, the spiritual para- 
bles in viewing the earth; the moistened earth, 
the clay, the clay on the wheel, the vessels in 
the "firing," then the artists' work in decoration, 
then the gilding, then the enamel bath, then the 
oven again; for higher grade vessels, further, 
choicer work of still more skillful artists, deeper 
gildings, another enamel bath, furnace again, etc., 
etc. Thus we were taken from room to room, 
from floor to floor, as the grades of work in- 
creased in elegance, and when we almost lost 
our breath in delight over some dream of beauty, 
we were gravely told the rarest pieces of work- 
manship had not been shown, were never seen 
in all this vast laboratory. Artists commanding 
almost fabulous salaries worked in the seclusion 
of their own studios upon choice plans, designed 

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Training of First Resurrectionists 

only for various royal courts of Europe, and 
never exposed to the gaze of the public. Having 
been fashioned on the wheel the $50,000 and 
$100,000 pieces of art were removed to the 
studios of the royal artists to be wrought upon 
and finished in their sacred seclusion. Thus God 
with a view to eternal uses may remove a choice 
soul from public service and the eye of man to 
put on them a rarity of heavenly decoration while 
they abide unseen, unknown, not understood — 
themselves not understanding — in this age. This 
is "heroic treatment" which God can only put 
the soul through who gives Him unbounded con- 
fidence; who yields his life as a continual blank 
card. Shall God dare to go all lengths with us? 
Will we let Him so treat us by the Holy Spirit 
to enamel baths, aye, glory baths ; that no tinge 
of spiritual pouts, the obnoxious ''Why?" "rea- 
sonings," "imaginings" (H. Cor. 10:5.) can hin- 
der His most delicate manipulations? "Let the 
beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." It is 
to the end that where now is a groaning, travail- 
ing creation there may be deliverance into the 
"liberty of the glory of the children of God." 
(See Alford, Rom. 8:21.) 



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VII 

Christ in Training for First Resurrection 

CRIPTURE states that Christ is 
"the first begotten of the dead," 

''the first fruits of them that 
slept." How came He to be the 
First of the first, the Leader of 
the first resurection file? Be- 
cause during His earthly life He 
kept in the place of absolute 
nothingness, and thus He let in the life of An- 
other. 

If we should raise the question with any little 
Sunday School child, ''What could Jesus do 
when He was here upon earth?" the child 
would reply, "He could make bread and fishes 
to feed thousands ; He could heal the sick ; He 
could cast out devils ; He could command the 
wind and the sea to be still ; He could find 
money in a fish's mouth ; He could raise the 
dead ; oh ! He could do everything." But when 
we turn to Him and ask Him, "In His earthly 
career, what can the Son of man do?" He re- 
plies, "I can * * * * do nothing." John 5:19. 
Herein was His perfection as a human being, 
as the man Christ Jesus. 

We fail to appreciate what a training was 
mortal life for Christ. From the bosom of 
the Father came Jesus, Himself the omnipotent 



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Christ in Training for First Resurrection 

God, to introduce that God-life into the flesh, 
through the nature received from Mary His 
mother. His was a call to live a sinless life in 
the flesh, that flesh which God says '*Is not 
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can 
be." Rom. 8 :7-8. ''They that are in the flesh 
can not please God." So the problem with 
Jesus was, how to dwell in the flesh, in human 
nature, that nature received from Mary, and 
never live in His humanity, never move from 
it for one single instant; thus only could He 
be ''holy" and remain "holy." "That holy 
thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called 
the Son of God." Luke 1 :35. As Son of Mary 
He met life, its temptations and its duties; as 
Son of God in the might of the Fathei, He 
lived that life ; a helpless humanity resting by 
faith in the Divine Father. 

A close study of the Gospel of John, which 
from one view point may be called the diary of 
the man Christ Jesus, reveals the unwavering 
position maintained by Him of denial of the 
human life. "Verily, verily, I say unto you. 
The Son can do nothing of Himself." John 5 : 
19, 30 ; 8 :28. Never spake of Himself, John 7 : 
16, 8:38; 12:49, etc. Never wrought a miracle, 
(only let the Father work through Him), 14: 
10; 5:36; 10:37-38; never came nor went from 
self, (ever the Sent One), 4.34; 5:23, 24, 30; 
12:44; 9:38, 39; 7:16; 9:4; 11:42; 12:44, 45, 
etc., etc. Never used His human judgment, 

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Resurrection Papers 

(only judged as the Father showed Him), 5: 
30. Jesus renounced the powers of His own 
being, refused to use them, yielded them to 
God, to be used by Him, and this renunciation 
was prophesied of Him in Isa. 42:19-21 as His 
perfection. ''Who is blind as My Servant, and 
deaf as My Messenger that I sent? who is blind 
as He that is perfect and blind as the Lord's 
Servant? seeing many things but Thou observ- 
est not; opening the ears but He heareth not. 
The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness' 
sake ; He will magnify the law and make it hon- 
orable." His ear "digged," (Ps. 40:6; Ex. 21 :6) 
or bored to the house of His Jehovah Master, 
He would not for one instant let any of His 
powers go out free, or let the seed of Mary in 
Him, the flesh, the human, even for one mo- 
ment use them, and if He had, that would have 
been a moment of sin, for "the flesh is enmity 
against God," "not subject," neither indeed can 
be." 

He had come to demonstrate how God could 
live in the flesh, dominate it, use its powers 
and live it uninterruptedly up into God, and 
show forth through it continuously only the 
glory of God. To do this He must be a real 
man, not a painted image of one. Very God of 
very God, He must become also very man of 
very man. In Himself He must demonstrate 
that the sinner from the depths of his sin could 
be lifted by letting God in. So He took the 

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Christ in Training for First Resurrection 

sinner's place, was made ''in the likeness of 
sinful flesh,'' took on Him ''the seed of Abra- 
ham," "was tempted in all points like as we are, 
yet without sin." Hallelujah! Thus in Him- 
self He met and conquered the temptations ad- 
dressed to the whole sinful race, having been 
supplied from Mary His mother with their own 
flesh, ("God can not be tempted") in which flesh 
to be subjected to every form of temptation 
that individually and collectively assailed man- 
kind. Truly God hath given us "a Savior and 
a Great One !" He was very man as we know 
human nature today, but in temptation He was 
the man colossal, in that there played upon 
that weak flesh everything that Satan and his 
hosts had turned upon the race from the ser- 
pent's hour of seducing Eve in the garden, up 
and out to all that shall come upon the race 
to the close of God's dealings with a sinful 
creation. And He was forevermore Conqueror 
Colossal, in that He triumphed over all with- 
out a second's interruption of that victory. 
One of the later forms of that battle and con- 
quest is portrayed in the Gethsemane agony. 

A subtle snare of the Chrisitian worker is 
that of making the will of God subservient to 
the work of God. In us Christian workers 
there are many forms of this — gross, less gross 
and more delicate. We see constantly how 
many are afraid to go on with God for fear of 
injury to His work in their hands. A fresh 

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Resurrection Papers 

instance of this appears just now in many 
lands, of workers in places of responsibility 
who more or less clearly perceive God moving 
in new ways, in His shedding of Latter Rain 
with gifts of tongues, healings, etc. A little 
study of Church history shows us in every age 
of the Church, hosts who have thus made mis- 
steps, as the English Church in the days of the 
Wesleys ; Congregationalists in the days of 
Finney ; Presbyterians in the time of the great 
outpouring of the Spirit in the Cumberland 
Mountains ; Welsh clergy and mission work- 
ers in this last mighty move of God in Wales ; 
etc., etc. Conservatism, the fear of taking up 
with unpopular truth, and many objections 
and prejudices as Satan can bring to bear upon 
a soul, must be turned on to prevent the Chris- 
tian from inquiring where God is and what 
is His will in the matter. As God breaks up- 
on the world in new and hitherto unknown 
ways of working, Christian workers can only 
be saved from various forms of rejecting Him 
by dying to the work of God, on the altar of 
advancing consecration to the will of God. 
Thus Jesus, the Christian Worker, could not 
be tempted in all points unless He met this 
also, and let drop the work of God in single- 
eyed devotion to the will of God. Gethsemane 
the place, midnight the hour. He began to be 
exceedingly sorrowful, "even unto death;" 
"He sweat as it were, great drops of blood fall- 

80 



Christ in Training for First Resurrection 

ing down to the ground." From such condi- 
tions death was now very, very imminent and 
He had not yet come to the cross, to hang up- 
on whicli expiation of our sins was His pre- 
eminent work, His holy mission to earth. 
Hence He cried, saying: ''Father, if Thou be 
willing, remove this cup, (the cup of prema- 
ture death, before He had come to the place 
and hour of His sacrificial offering) from me." 
Oh, with what intensity of desire for the 
world's salvation He cried again and again and 
again to have this cup averted, that He might 
pass on and drink that other cup of the wrath 
of God on your sins and mine ; and being in 
agony. He prayed the more earnestly. He- 
brews 5 gives the subject matter of this prayer 
and its result. He prayed "to Him that was 
able to save Him from death ;" the prayer was 
answered, "He was heard." Reason? "In that 
He feared," (margin, "for his piety," "for His 
subjection;" Alford, "for His reverent subjec- 
tion.") Since His prayer to be saved from 
death was heard, it could not have been the 
death of the cross He was praying to be saved 
from, but a premature death there in Gethse- 
mane which would forestall His mission of be- 
coming the Savior of the world. Can we not 
see in that most blessed and holy mystery of 
the union of the two natures in Jesus, that of 
Mary and that of God, that as divine He knew 
all things, yet as human He was subject to 

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Resurrection Papers 

surprises and confusion as we are? How ter- 
rible, with the holy call upon Him to die for a 
wrecked world, and to the outmost bounds of 
His nature a palpitating love for its lost souls, 
in one instant to have all His Christian-worker 
hopes dashed ! With a certain knowledge that 
His sacrificial death was a lost world's only 
life, to give that sacrifice all up, and to drop 
out of human life, if such be the will of God, 
nothing accomplished! Oh, what depth of con- 
secration this called for in the Christian human 
nature of Christ ! In that nature He could not 
understand how this could be, why it should 
be. The perpetual reiteration, ''not my will 
but Thine" as He prayed in an agony was a 
laying down of His life-work in consecration 
to the unknown will of God. "Being in an 
agony," the blood exuding from every pore, 
dissolution at hand, there appeared an angel 
from heaven strengthening Him to continue, 
"not my will but Thine be done." Thus He 
made His prayer, "to Him that could save Him 
from death," (Heb. 5 :7) and was heard "in 
that He feared." Feared to die? Oh no. He 
had come to earth to die. "In that He feared" 
to hold on to life against the unknown will of 
God. Feared to hold on to His Christian work 
against the possible will of God. He let life 
go, He let His Christian work go that He 
might have "not my will but Thine * "S" * done." 
He had come to earth not preeminently for the 

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Christ in Training for First Resurrection 

salvation of a world, but preeminently to do 
the will of God; *'Lo, I came to do Thy will." 
If that will led Him otherwise than He thought, 
He must follow the will, not the work. God 
help us to get clear on first things first. "For 
His piety," that is. His subjection of His work 
to the unknown will of God, ''He was heard." 
"Tho' He were a Son, yet learned He obedi- 
ence, (that is, an ever-deepening quality of 
obedience — of course, there was never an atom 
of disobdience) by the things which He suf- 
fered," and "being made perfect, He became 
the Author of eternal salvation unto all them 
that obey Him." As a Christian worker He 
was "made perfect," by submitting the work 
of God to the will of God, and if He had not 
thus been "made perfect," He never could have 
had the Authorship of eternal salvation. It 
was necessary that He should lay down even 
the work of God for the will of God, in order 
to be that perfect man Christ Jesus, whom God 
could accept for the saving work of the cross 
of Calvary. The Father must make Him by 
His life-long victory in God over the flesh, in 
all things, at all points a perfect man, before 
He could carry Jesus to the tree and there 
make Him a perfect sacrifice. 

Notice that in laying down the work of God 
to the will of God, He became united to that 
will so that it became possible for God to give 
Him the very work He laid down ! In fact, it 

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Resurrection Papers 

was His only road to that work. Latterly the 
writer has seen much of the dealing of God 
with many of His children on this very point. 
To illustrate — when the Latter Rain power and 
blessing struck a little company who had been 
going to a Salvation Mission, their speaking 
in tongues and various other demonstrations 
when the power of God came upon them fright- 
ened others of the mission and they soon froze 
these off, but their mission began to parch and 
finally went all to nothing and they came to 
this little Latter Rain company and asked them 
to buy the furnishings and reopen the place, 
which they did, on Pentecostal lines. Afraid of 
this "new thing," they had held on to their work 
against the will of God and came to naught. 
In another vicinity God struck a large and 
flourishing work with His power, several came 
out in tongues and there was much blessing, 
but many who had hitherto been staunch sup- 
porters of this faith work were ready to leave 
unless the new manifestations of God were 
checked. The leader of the work however 
said, "We will stand by God, and let Him do 
what He will with us, we believe that while 
some will leave, our God is able to send in 
others." Thus the work went through a sift- 
ing, but God has greatly enlarged it, and they 
are more prosperous there today than they were 
before. There may sometimes be self mixed 
with our desire for the prosperity of His work, 

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Christ in Training for First Resurrection 

but when we die to the work that we may fol- 
low the whole will of God, a great thing is ac- 
complished for all eternity. 

There were still other and far deeper deaths 
that Jesus the Savior of mankind was to die 
on Calvary's cross, but He could not have come 
to that Savior's work had He not first been 
"made perfect" as man of God for only an ab- 
solutely perfect man could be accepted for that 
sacrifice. Nor would it have done for God to 
have sent Him to the earth, a perfect man, un- 
able to feel the power of temptation. He must 
stand in the sinner's stead, feeling the pressure 
of a sin-broken nature, and getting the sinner's 
victory, that is, through grace, and not because 
of inherent strength, over that nature. But 
how in the sinner's nature could He be forever 
absolutely sinless? By living the life He 
wants you and me to live. All the way through 
it was, "I live, yet not I, but the Father, ("He 
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father;" 'T 
and the Father are one.") As He has pro- 
vided for us by the cross that it may be "I live 
yet not I but Christ," He lived the life in the 
flesh, against the flesh, above the flesh. He 
lived the divine life in the human nature. He 
really lived the life against the odds, and main- 
tained the absolute victory of holiness which 
now He offers to live in any and every sinner. 
He can say always to every sinner, "I have met 
all this your life, and gone victoriously over it, 

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Resurrection Papers 

I was tempted in all points like as you are, yet 
without sin, I can do it again. Let me in, let 
me do it all." Ah ! in that little word all is the 
secret of His victorious earthly life. It was all 
God in His laid down human nature. In He- 
brews 1 :3 He is spoken of as "the brightness 
of His (Father's) glory, the express image of 
His person." (Substance, R. V.) The thought 
brought out here is one of blessed instruction. 
The Greek word here rendered ''express image" 
is characteer, not character, but that which the 
written character makes ; the impression made 
upon the wax table used in writing among the 
ancients, or the indentations made upon the 
yielding papyrus by the stylus, or the imprint 
made by the dropping of the die or seal upon 
the soft wax. It was the emptiness which let 
in the fulness of the seal or stamp. And were 
there as much as a roseleaf of thickness be- 
tween the seal and the impress, it were not an 
exact characteer, not an ''express image" every- 
where and everyhow hollowed out to fit the 
fulness of the seal. Its fulness dropped into 
the characteer's emptiness as the fulness of the 
key fits into the empty spaces of the lock, as 
the hollowness of our jointsockets give play 
to the balls, so Christ in His mortal life per- 
petually gave place in His emptiness to the 
fulness of the Father. He renounced all in- 
dependent thought or action, and just let, so 
to speak, God the Key, turn in Christ the Lock; 

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Christ in Training for First Resurrection 

God the Ball, play in Christ the Socket. Thus 
does God say of Him delightedly, seeing His 
utter self-abnegation, "Who is blind but My 
Servant? or deaf as My Messenger that I sent? 
Who is blind as He that is perfect, and blind as 
the Lord's Servant? Seeing many things, but 
Thou observest them not ; opening the ears, but 
He heareth not. The Lord is v^ell pleased for 
His righteousness' sake." 

Here was coming one of Adam's race v^ho 
should live absolute righteousness. The first 
Adam was made sinless, yet he fell into sin ; the 
second Adam "made in the likeness of sinful 
flesh" never sins, but magnifies the holy law 
and makes it honorable. "Verily He took not 
on Him the nature of angels, but He took on 
Him the seed of Abraham." Heb. 2:16. He 
came, however, in the power of the Lord's 
secret, with abnegated faculties to let another 
live all the life in Him. "He will magnify the 
law and make it honorable." He did. It was 
always everyhow kept by God in Him. Well 
may He say to you and me, "Learn of Me for 
I am meek and lowly in heart." He was the 
full overcomer in the flesh, and as "Leader of 
the file," (lit. Greek for "Captain of our Salva- 
tion," Heb. 2:10) waits to repeat Himself fully 
in you and me. He was the full overcomer, 
hence the "first-begotten from the dead." "He 
knoweth our frame, (for He has been in it) 
He rememhereth that we are dust." He expects 

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Resurrection Papers 

nothing from us, for in that frame He could do 
"nothing" as a Son of God. As He expects 
nothing from us, He would teach us to expect 
nothing from ourselves or each other, but put 
all our expectations in Him. m 

Exult, O dust and ashes! 

The Lord shall be thy part, 
His, only His forever. 

Thou shalt be and thou art! 

"The disciple is not above his Master: but 
everyone shall be perfected as his Master," 
(margin, Luke 6:40). As Jesus drew his mor- 
tal living from the Father, and was complete 
in the Father, so we are complete "in Him." 

Complete, oh sweet and heavenly v^ord! 

Which sinless angels never heard, 
Complete, not in myself, but Thee, 

"Yes, trusting soul, complete in Me." 



Faith 
Reminiscences 



God Backing a Train 




N ORDER to face the real prob- 
lems of a faith life on the mis- 
sion field, I cut free from my 
salary while in India, and vol- 
untarily launched away on God 
for material supply. I was seek- 
ing then to lead some convicted 
Hindoos to Jesus, which meant 
for them a very literal forsaking all — caste 
(which involved social standing), property, 
wife, business prospects, etc. They were 
young college students ; two or three of them 
were in an agony of conviction. While I quoted 
to them, ''Seek ye first the kingdom of God 
and His righteousness, and all these things 
shall be added to you," the Holy Spirit whis- 
pered within me, "Blaze the way for them 
yourself." We know how that is done in un- 
trackable American forests. Thus I cut away. 
I was then a missionary of the A. B. C. F. 
M., and God made the first steppings of faith 
for finances so easy. On every hand wonder- 
ful supply. No testings. Soon after my health 
failed, and dwelling far, far, in the interior 
among the dear Indian idolaters, He made it 
necessary for me to come to Bombay and then 
on to America. However, it all ran so smooth- 



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Faith Reminiscences 

\y; almost before I realized need, it was met. 
Thus I came to England and America with a 
glad shout of the faithfulness of my Jehovah- 
Jireh. Soon after reaching New London, Con- 
necticut, much better in health, I met an old 
friend, a clergyman, who was deeply stirred 
for a life of entire sanctification, but who de- 
clared it could not be lived by the clergy, since 
to keep the experience (he had blessedly 
touched it once), one must preach it, and to 
preach it was to endanger one's safety in his 
charge and bring upon him hostile attitude 
from his brother clergy. "What of that?" said 
I, "We can not give up our friendship with 
God for place, or for friendship of man. The 
price is too great to pay — a stunted and 
dwarfed soul for eternity." "Yes, but you do 
not appreciate the situation ; no church, no 
salary, and a wife and three babes to support !" 
I insisted it was safe to trust God and obey, 
regardless of consequences. There was to be 
a Convention in his church in the late Autumn, 
Would I come up and bring my fuller Gospel? 
"Yes, God willing." So things rested. How- 
ever, when the Convention dates were sent me 
and an invitation to Vermont — for the first 
time since my *faith-life" commenced I was 
lacking money. I could not write my friend 
that God had failed me after so vigorously 
urging him to trust God ; moreover, I was per- 
suaded that God wanted me there and would 

92 



God Backing a Train 

send me. Through the few intervening days 
I watched every mail — no money. Then came 
a letter from a dear brother, G. M., in Putnam, 
Connecticut, which was on my line of travel 
to Vermont, but a very short distance on the 
way. Would I come to Putnam and have 
meetings for several days? This was a rich 
man who had a Gospel Hall. Oh yes, I saw 
the way out! In service in Putnam somebody 
would be moved to give me the money for my 
railroad ticket. I went with bounding steps to 
Putnam, though when I had bought my ticket 
I had only a few cents left. God opened the 
way to several of the churches as well as the 
Gospel Hall. At the close of each service peo- 
ple crowded around and thanked me, but no 
money. New experience to me, but God was 
withholding them from giving; He was teach- 
ing me something. I had a well-to-do uncon- 
verted uncle whom I called on at a stop-over 
en route. Frequently before this whenever 
I met him he put a little money in my hand, T 
expected it now. A pleasant call, no money ! 
When I left God showed me that mine might 
be called a faith-life if my eye was upon Plim 
only, but if my eye was upon man, it was little 
better than religious mendicancy, whatever I 
called it. God would save me from expecting 
from man, thus only could I be clean unto God. 
It was Sunday night and we had returned 
from the last meeting. I was to start Monday 

93 



Faith Reminiscences 

at four A. M. for Vermont. It was arranged 
that I was to be called at three A. M., then 
breakfast and be driven by my host to the 
train. So I bade the family good-by that 
night; as I did so, the old lady of the family 
pressed a bill into my hand. "Ah," thought I, 
"here comes my railroad fare," but on reaching 
my room I found it was but $1 ; very inter- 
esting, but not much to the purpose for a 
$12 or $15 journey by rail and coach. 

Now for two days God had been talking to 
me so tenderly of "taking no thought for the 
morrow," "your heavenly Father knoweth," 
"much more value than many sparrows," etc., 
but as I stood in that room that night with 
that one cold dollar in my hand, how the devil 
got after me. "What are you going to do to- 
morrow when you go to the ticket office win- 
dow?" "What will you say to the clerk?" "A 
dollar and four cents for a ticket to Vermont !" 
"No, you will turn around and say to your 
brother, G. M., 'I haven't the money for my 
ticket' " "Oh yes, he will give it to you, he 
is rich." "But what will become of your faith- 
life?" "Stumping the world a religious pau- 
per." I knew it was Satan talking. I cried, 
"Now, Father, Thou hast said, 'Take no thought 
for the morrow,' and if this command is obeyed 
Thou must take thoughts out of me or I shall 
not sleep tonight." I rose from my knees and 
went to my couch. Wonder of wonders ! I 

94 



God Backing a Train 

never knew when my head touched the pillow. 
I was awakened from my refreshing, babe-like 
sleep by a sharp knock at the door; "Three 
o'clock, Miss Sisson." Of all miracles that 
followed I count this dreamless repose the 
greatest. I hurriedly dressed and went to my 
breakfast. The devil tried to start some of 
the questions of the night before, but his 
power was broken. God had too deeply poised 
me in Himself for them to touch me. What a 
God we have ! After the meal which was 
thoroughly enjoyed. Brother M. said, "We 
must have a word of prayer." On our knees 
a great rush of the quickening power of God 
(as he afterwards told me) came to him, 
"Lord," he said, "she does not ask for money, 
she asks for workers, but Lord, give her hun- 
dreds of dollars for the work." As he prayed 
the assurance dropped from heaven into my 
breast that it would be so, though I had only 
one dollar and four cents toward my railroad 
ticket. My soul was exultant, a very real God 
was dealing with me and I knew it. Without 
even any allusion whatever to money in all my 
public work (or private life), in the next six 
months I forwarded to the India field for God's 
work more than a thousand dollars ; no doubt 
God's answer to that dear man's prayer. 

The sleigh came to the door and we drove 
the mile to the train. Too early, ticket master 
not there. As we sat and talked of the things 

95 



Faith Reminiscences 

of the kingdom, my friend said, ''Let me see, 
you go through Worcester on your route, and 
have to wait there for an hour. I have a pass 
as far as Worcester, you can buy your ticket 
there and save a little." So it came to pass 
I never saw the face of that ticket-master at 
the little Putnam station. How the devil likes 
to lift up bugbears before the trusting child of 
God! Now he said, ''You have never been in 
Worcester in your life before and know no one 
there; worse for you to be left penniless there 
than here." Enlargement and deliverance, 
however, had begun to rise within and with- 
out, and my soul was settled in a deep sweet 
peace. Brother M. stood talking with me as 
the train pulled out and we said our good-byes. 
I was en route to Northern Vermont with a 
pass to Worcester, $1.04 in my pocket, serene 
peace in my soul. Hallelujah! What a 
Savior! 

We had not run far when the train backed 
into the station. My friend rushed in and said 
breathlessly, "As the train moved out God 
spoke to me, 'You ought to have given my 
child some money.' It was just then so hard 
for me to get hold of ready money, and chari- 
ties had been curtailed, but I cried. Lord if 
you want me to give, send the train back. It 
began to back immediately, and here is the 
money." No time for more, the whistle blew 

96 



God Backing a Train 

and he was off, but he had left in my hand a 
roll of bills — I counted, it was $50. 

A course in a theological seminary could not 
have given me the equipment for that Con- 
vention which I had in this venture on God, 
and the revelation of His power, bounty and 
love, which came to me in this strait place. 
God knows how to train His souls, and often 
thinks as man-made institutions do not. 

This testimony of our delivering God when 
written back to my friend G. M., set him 
shouting and adoring Infinite Goodness. 

"Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel? 
And why not every man?" 



97 




II 

Providing for the Family 

ETURNING to this country from 
years of service abroad, I found 
that my two sisters, energized 
by the same Holy Spirit v^ho had 
sent me out to preach a free 
Gospel, had, one after the other, 
gone out into the Lord's work 
so extensively that it had caused 
renunciation of their salaries as public 
school teachers and sent them pushing into 
any open doors in real aggressive Gospel ser- 
vice. But aggressive work for the Lord often 
means for the fervent but indigent child of 
God, "without purse or scrip," and many hard- 
ships. Thus it came to pass that when they 
came home from their frequent raids without 
money and threadbare, mother, who was al- 
ready suffering the loss in the family of their 
salaries, drew on the tiny sum she had in the 
bank and clothed them, only to see them start 
out afresh and repeat the process. Hence it 
came to pass on my return to America in look- 
ing over circumstances, I found all family re- 
sources gone, only the little home left and the 
next imperative step, a mortgage. It was easy 
to figure how soon that would swallow up the 
house, and then the almshouse for my aged 



98 



Providing for the Family 

mother, unless I should venture on some re- 
munerative business-life whereby I could sup- 
port her and keep up the little home. Oh, 
what pressure I came under! 

On the one hand my call to Gospel work, 
the most distinct thing in my Christian life, and 
from the time of it there had always settled 
upon me a ''woe is me if I preach not the Gos- 
pel ;" and on the other, a tremendous push to 
go to money-making for the needs of my in- 
valid parent and also for the house-mother 
sister who cared for her. Oh, how strong the 
voice was — "You have talents (it has never 
yet been proved), you could make money if 
you gave yourself to it. Circumstances of 
your family demand it. Remember, 'If any 
provide not for his own, and especially for 
those of his ozvn house, he hath denied the faith 
and is worse than an infidel.' " I could not 
for a time discern which of these two pulls 
was the Lord's : both equally intense. The one 
I had known as the Lord's and had proved it 
in following, but the other commended itself 
to my judgment and practical common sense 
as now God's voice in change of circumstances ; 
then, too, it had (or seemed to have) the au- 
thority of scripture. The more I reasoned in 
the matter the more confused I became and I 
could not abate the force of either demand. 
Then came a lonely day when apart with God 
with strong crying and tears, I went over the 

99- 



Faith Reminiscences 

thing again and besought the Lord to show me 
what was right. Must I neglect the family 
and go forward in Gospel work, or would it be 
true to God to turn to some money-getting 
scheme for their sakes? ''Lord, You know, 
'He that provideth not for his own is worse 
than an infidel and hath denied the faith,' " I 
groaned. At last broke a Voice in upon my 
turbulent heart, "All right, provide for your 
family." "Ah, Lord, may I, must I leave 
preaching the Gospel for the support of my 
family?" I exclaimed, half pleased, half terri- 
fied. "Yes, provide for your family in the 
faith/' came back to me. "In the faith?" I 
could not seem to catch the meaning. "Yes, 
in the faith." "Have you not gone forth with- 
out purse or scrip these many years trusting 
Me? Have I not cared for you? Lacked ye 
anything when I sent you without purse or 
scrip?" "No, Lord." "Then, in the same faith, 
now provide for your family. You trusted Me 
to take care of you as you went forth at My 
bidding with a free Gospel. Have I failed 
you? I am the Lord of the whole earth, the 
gold and the silver are Mine and the cattle up- 
on a thousand hills. Is it not as easy for Me 
to provide for four (just then there was re- 
turned from India an invalid missionary sister 
and her adopted Indian little girl) as for one? 
As you have trusted Me for one, will you 

100 



Providing for the Family 

from henceforth trust Me for four? Will you 
thus provide for your family in the faith?" 

Then my Lord and I entered into covenant, 
and let me here say, to the praise of His faith- 
fulness, that never has He in the over thirty 
years since, failed me once. I have been nig- 
gardly in my faith tov^ard Him, both for my 
personal supply and the supply for the family 
and thus I have limited His power toward us, 
for He says, ''According to your faith be it 
unto you." I look back to see that both I and 
the family might have had very, very much 
more from the hand of His bounty had I al- 
ways remembered. 

Thou art coming to a King, 
With thee large petitions bring. 

Halting though I have been toward Him, in- 
expressibly tender has been my faith-life with 
the Lord, and a great factor in letting me in- 
to the depth, power and riches of His promises 
on every line. One has sung: 

They that trust Him wholly 
Find Him wholly true. 

The roadway into His heart is plank after 
plank, Trust, Trust, Trust. One of the most 
beautiful things in that faith-life was the way 
God honored, all the days of her after life, my 
dear old mother, who held her breath from 
murmur, when first one then the other of her 
daughters had withdrawn from their salaried 
work, for soul seeking, and she drew bit by 

101 



Faith Reminiscences 

bit her little all from the bank to stock their 
slender wardrobes, and renew them for cam- 
paigns when they had come home empty- 
handed and ragged from their ''meetings." 
God saw to it that the most exquisite care and 
tender love waited upon her declining years. 
She was passionately fond of flowers; though 
we should have thought it an extravagance to 
use the Lord's money to buy them, He drew 
the hearts of the young of many circles toward 
her. It became quite the fashion to supply 
Mrs. Sisson with flowers or house-plants. The 
mortgage never came on "the little brown 
house under the hill" (as one of our friends 
had lovingly christened it). No mortgage 
during all my mother's long illness and many 
other experiences, and the house continues to 
shelter us and has become in this hour of 
hours of the world's crisis, literally, ''a house 
of prayer for all nations." 

"Trust in the Lord and do good ; so shalt 
thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt 
be fed." 

I'm only a little sparrow, 

A bird of low degree; 
My life is of little value, 

But the dear Lord cares for me. 

He gives me a coat of feathers — 

It is very plain I know, 
Without a speck of crimson, 

For it was not made for show. 

102 



Providing for the Family 

But it keeps me warm in winter 
And it shields me from the rain; 

Were it bordered with gold and purple, 
Perhaps it would make me vain. 

And when the springtime cometh, 
I will build me a little nest, 

With many a chirp of pleasure. 
In the spot I love the best. 

I have no barn or storehouse, 

I neither sow nor reap; 
God gives a sparrow's portion. 

And never a seed to keep. 

If my meat is sometimes scanty, 
Close pecking makes it sweet; 

I have always enough to feed me, 
And life is more than meat. 



103 



Ill 




Tombstones Spurting Gold 

HAT was a severe winter in the 
State of Maine. God had sent me 
with others into Gospel service in 
the backwoods where "the ways 
of Zion mourned" and even the 
schoolhouses had not been opened 
for Christian work for years. 
God poured out His Spirit and 
wrought there — backsHders reclaimed, souls 
saved, sick ones healed. After the revival 
was over and workers scattered, God showed 
me He wanted me to stay on among the peo- 
ple for a while "as a nurse cherisheth her chil- 
dren," for they were "as sheep having no shep- 
herd." But when the weeks passed into 
months and still I had no liberty to leave, and 
had to refuse other calls which came to me, 
and there was and could be no money in 
this thing, the devil set in with heavy tempta- 
tions. "You know that mother and the little 
family at home are dependent on what you send 
them. You know these poor dear farmer-folk 
have no idea that you need money; if they give 
you food and shelter while you stay they feel 
theyaredoing uncommonly well [for they never 
gave to the Lord 'till after they were quickened] ; 
even did they desire to give you money, they 



104 



Tombstones Spurting Gold 

have none. A silver dollar is as big as a cart- 
wheel here, they only trade in barter, etc." You 
understand how the devil can put a blue atmos- 
phere around one. Day by day it was, "What 
has your mother and the family got to eat? For 
you know they will not go into debt. Why don't 
you get up and go somewhere? You have calls. 
You must consider your family. It is all non- 
sense to wait here for a 'leading' to go. You 
may stay here all the rest of your life, etc." Day 
by day Satan was nagging me, yet no release 
from the Lord to quit the little flock, and I tell- 
ing Him I would rather die than miss His will, 
to hold me steady in the center of it. 

Thus things went on for nearly three months 
when came a letter from an old friend (Mrs. 
Green) whom I had not even thought of for many 
months. It must have been the Lord who put me 
at that time in her mind and my mother of whom 
she knew little, and of whom her mother knew 
less. Mrs. Green did not know where I was, but 
the letter was forwarded. In it this Mrs. Minnie 
Green wrote: "The enclosed will explain itself, 
as I read it, there was a whisper in my heart: 
'This is for Miss Sisson's mother ;' to test the 
voice I read the letter to my own mother, Mrs. 
Fisher, and as I read mother said : 'Minnie, that 
is for Miss Sisson's mother.' " 

Why should the thought of my mother come 
into Mrs. Fisher's mind ; a person in whom she 
had hitherto taken no interest? It was God! 

105 



Faith Reminiscences 

Mrs. Green resumed: "I have sent the check 
to your home, the letter, which explains, to you." 
Turning to the thus introduced document I found 
it was from a Christian physician to Mrs. Green. 
He said, "Many years ago our mutual friend, 
Mrs. H., was kind to me as a young medical 
student, she saw that I was working my way 
through college but scantily, and was poorly 
nourished. She offered me money; I refused 
to take it seeing no way of repaying. She urged 
it upon me as the Lord's money, saying if in 
after years the Lord gave me to pay it, good; 
if not, it was all right. It was given unto Him." 
The letter went on, ''She died some fifteen years 
ago. I had never been able to replace the money, 
but in later years God has much prospered me 
and I have had the joy of frequent moneys put 
in His work, but somehow I longed that the 
original sum should be handed Mrs. Hughes. 
The next best thing was to give it to you, dear 
Mrs. Green, her most intimate friend, whom I 
have known for years as a dispenser of chari- 
ties, and ask you to give it for her." 

Thus came the $40 which covered those sharp, 
sharp months. God had taken care! Satan was 
again proved a liar. I seemed to hear the Lord 
saying, "Will you ever doubt Me again? Do 
you not see that / can cause tombstones to spurt 
gold if necessary to provide for My own? But 
I can never, never break My promises." 

In writing off the circumstances to the friend 

106 



Tombstones Spurting Gold 

who had been God's instrument at this time for 
my deliverance, that her faith also might be 
quickened in the knowledge of His faithfulness, 
she replied, *'Can the grave praise Thee?" But 
it does! "Hallelujah." 

"Seek ye iirst (every hour, every minute, in 
every circumstance) the kingdom of God and His 
righteousness and all these things (what ye shall 
eat, what ye shall drink, wherewithal ye shall be 
clothed) SHALL be added unto you." "For your 
heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have 
need of before ye ask Him." 



107 




IV 

The Money Token 

T THE time of which I write we 
were three on the mission field in 
India, our comrade in the work, 
my sister and self. For some time 
this comrade and I had known 
that my sister's feeble health 
should take her off the field for 
our work's sake and her health's 
sake. But it was as death to her to contemplate 
leaving the work, her charge with the mission 
children and all the heavy burdens with us. 

After a long talk with her in which it seemed 
impossible to make her see the necessity of gomg 
home (and one feared to push it, the brain, owing 
to her illness, was in such a delicate condition) I 
left her and turned to God in prayer. To my 
astonishment He showed me in a sort of vision 
a straight road to London, England, and made 
me know I was to accompany her. This seemed 
greatly to increase the difBculty, for if my sister 
was unwilling to go and leave us two to bear the 
burden of the work, how much worse for two of 
us to pull out and leave Miss W., our associate, 
alone ! I shrank from even broaching the mat- 
ter to my invalid; however, God held me to it 
inexorably. 

I took the earliest opportunity of seeing Miss 



108 



The Money Token 

W. alone, telling her what God had shown me. 
She was as much shocked as I myself with the 
plan and, I saw, doubted that it was a revelation 
from God. She did not say no, dear kind friend ! 
but simply remarked : "If this be of Him, He 
must do for us, for there is not money in the 
treasury to send you both." She was treasurer 
and this was a new outlook to me. I turned from 
her and went to my room with a full heart to 
kneel before my Lord. My heart so ached, I 
knew not what to say, or how to order my words 
before Him, but I had scarcely knelt till I found 
myself saying : "Lord, if this is really You talk- 
ing to me, give a moneyed token." I could say 
no more, I began to be so glad that it was im- 
possible to go unless He did. Soon the joy took 
me off my feet and I again sought Miss W. to 
rejoice with her that God had thus shut me up, 
when I met her half way between her room and 
mine, an open letter in her hand. She said: "I 
was so distressed with the plan you had of leav- 
ing me I went directly to God with it and cried: 
'Lord, if this be of Thee, give a moneyed token/ 
The words were scarcely out of my lips when 
hearing a step on the gravel walk outside of my 
window, I looked up, and there was the Col- 
lector's chaprassee.* He handed me this note." 



*The Collector of the district with us in India is 
equivalent to a state governor in the United States. 
This one resided at Basim and was a Christian man, A 
chaprassee is a body servant. 

109 



Faith Reminiscences 

Miss W. gave me the letter. I read: "As a 
thank offering to God for mercies received, I 
enclose fifty rupees for you to use in the mission 
for any present need." As just then we had 
money beyond all other pressing needs, it said 
to both of us : ''I am your moneyed token." 
When we compared notes we found God at the 
same moment had put the same worded prayer 
in both our lips, having started the answer afoot 
from the Collector's house about two and a half 
miles away, and kept it walking till it arrived at 
our very door while we were praying. Both of 
us saw it was a case of: ''Before they call I will 
answer." 

Thus we had the courage to make it known to 
my sister. He who had begun to work, helped 
her over her hard place, and we calmly went 
forward with preparations for our voyages, yet 
not without much grace could we do so. Fifty 
rupees (less than $25) was only a token. I had 
with me money for my own passage to England, 
the gift of a friend, and as God had shown me 
only a road to London, I inferred my sister would 
then be so far recovered that she could make her 
second voyage alone (which came to pass), but 
for her home going every bit of money in the 
treasury must be scraped. A building which was 
proceeding for a girls' dormitory, and which with 
its mud walls it seemed necessary to hasten and 
to get the roof on before the now expected rains, 
must therefore be stopped. My sister was too 

no 



The Money Token 

ill to know the details. Upon me rested the onus 
of scraping up all the little monies of a destitute 
mission station and by that money running away 
to a land of plenty ! Oh, those were days of 
agony ! They would not have been had I more 
simply rested in His faithfulness. Over against 
every trial we have it written, "Jesus Himself 
knew what He would do." 

Miss W. rose to a sublime height of joy and 
courage in God as she found herself stripped, 
building work stopped, etc., and kept saying: 
"Now we shall see what God will do." But the 
more triumphant she grew, the more mean and 
vile I felt, for I was the hand that was stripping 
her. Thus we separated and at the appointed 
time left for Bombay and our steamer. But lo ! 
there was some hitch; our steamer was delayed 
and again delayed so that we were detained 
nearly two weeks in Bombay. We were uncom- 
fortably situated. How mean I felt! How blue 
the days ! While thus held in Bombay the Ameri- 
can and European weekly mail came in ; ours, of 
course, went to Basim, but as we kept on in 
Bombay it was forwarded to us and reached us 
two days before our actual sailing. Then we 
understood our detention. 

One letter to my sister from a New York mer- 
chant enclosed the money for the double pas- 
sages to England and America, and said: "God 
shows me you are to come ; think well before you 
dare to refuse this provision and fail to come 

111 



Faith Reminiscences 

home." We had time to return this money to 
Basim and restore to the depleted treasury all 
we had taken, and the delay in building had not 
been serious. 

"When the Lord turned our captivity then 
were we like them that dreamed." So with our 
mouths filled with laughter and singing we sailed 
away. Observe — if our steamer had not been de- 
layed those letters would have followed us to 
America before the check could have been cashed 
and returned to the mission. That delay would 
have been to the mission work a great disaster. 
This delay was to us all a great blessing. ''When 
He putteth forth His sheep, He goeth before 
them." 

"Let the fiery cloudy Pillar 
Guide me all my journey through." 



112 




.V 

The Guarded Sovereign 

N the providence of God, time came 
when He had led me as a worker 
to Bethshan, the first house of the 
Lord's healing opened in Great 
Britain. Faith for finances had 
here a closer testing than in 
America, for few in those days 
understood going out in Christian 
work looking to God alone for financial supply. 
It was generally understood if people were en- 
gaged in independent religious work, that they 
had a private income to enable them to do so. 
I stood between two precious Christian workers, 
each with her personal income. It was my joy 
there to stand, and never make a want known to 
the human, and demonstrate the faithfulness of 
God to supply. 

On one occasion, called to go north to Bristol — 
a friend whose home was Bristol had promised to 
meet me at the train the day before the meeting, 
and journey with me. It was nothing to me to 
find when I counted my little money, that I had 
only tram fares to the railroad station, and ticket 
money to Bristol, nothing for return. I had 
proved God too often on these lines to fear. Thus 
gaily the next morning I sallied forth to the rail- 
road station, bought ticket, and (according to 



113 



Faith Reminiscences 

American custom) sat down in waiting room for 
my friend to pick me up. As the clock neared 
the moment of departure, she had not appeared. 
I saw the train on track getting up steam, and 
thought, "Why, she is running it very close!" I 
dared not move lest I might thus miss her, but 
kept my eyes on the two doors, the one by which 
she should enter to find me, and the other from 
which I saw the train just ready to move out. I 
did not know until afterward that she (according 
to English custom) stood on platform by the 
train, waiting every moment for me to keep my 
appointment and join her, and only as the train 
moved did she jump on. As I saw it move out, 
I realized I had lost the train, and no money even 
to pay tram fares back to the city. I lifted my 
heart to God and it came to me to go to ticket 
office and ask them to take back my ticket. They 
did so and this enabled me to get back to Beth- 
shan, but with an appointment for meeting next 
day staring me in face, and but little more money 
than enough to pay trams back to the station; 
none for ticket, and I must rise very early in the 
cold winter morning to make it, so that I could 
hold my meeting that evening. It was all an im- 
possibility unless I told one of my fellow-workers. 
How strong the temptation! Yet why had God 
put me in this house but for (among other rea- 
sons) to witness His faithfulness to His faith- 
workers ? No ! I could not open my mouth. 
Then the accuser of the brethren, who is al- 

114 



The Guarded Sovereign 

ways on hand when there is a trial, began to tell 
me, "There is something wrong in you or you 
would not be left in the lurch this way. God 
has never thus deserted you before," etc. Down 
on my knees I began to call on God, with strong 
crying and tears, to show me what was wrong 
and help me get right. In the midst of my tu- 
mult came suddenly a voice, oh, so clear, **Go up 
in the room you occupied last year, and look in 
your old writing desk." Had I stopped to reason 
I would have said, "Why, that room has been 
emptied and cleaned from thirty to forty times 
in this over a year" (for guests did not usually 
remain with us over a week), but I sprang to my 
feet and went up and looked in a closet and 
found in it the old broken-down desk, discarded 
when I changed rooms and left to be carried 
away as rubbish. I opened it now with trembling 
hands, and found in an inner drawer, all open to 
the public, 3. precious sovereign ($5.00 gold piece). 
As I looked at it I thought, "Surely, God has just 
dropped this in here from heaven !" You had 
better believe I had both a spiritual and provi- 
dential anointing for my Bristol meeting next 
day ! What a glad service it was, and with what 
joy I could talk of Him. The spirit independent 
of all but God, and so dependent upon Him, with 
which one walks with God for finances ! 

It was a year later that the mystery of the gold 
piece was solved. Then I had a letter from a 
distant foreign mission field in which the writer 

115 



Faith Reminiscences 

said, "Forgive me for putting so indelicate a 
question, but some two years ago when passing 
through London and Bethshan, I wias in your 
room and dropped a sovereign in your writing 
desk. I have often been charged by the enemy 
with folly for this, and told you never got it, 
likely some housemaid found and appropriated 
it," etc. Well she might in all that time! How 
miany new maids, coming and going, we had had 
in that long year, in which the rubbishy piece of 
broken-down furniture stood, unremoved, un- 
locked, in that closet ! But God ! The conse- 
crated moneys of His precious missionary-child 
were all too dear to Him, as also the need of His 
other little one. He sacredly guarded the treasure, 
and fitted the gift and the need together in His 
own wonderful way. "His Name shall be called 
Wonderful!" And when the missionary friend 
added, "Did you ever find it?" the story came 
out, which made the double delight of giver and 
receiver, who alike saw Him. 

"But what is the gain," I hear some one ask, 
"of such a life of faith — if you call it faith? 
Wherein is it more useful to God than life on a 
salary? Indeed, how can it compare favorably 
with life on a salary where one is free from all 
this wear and tear of uncertainty which comes 
from being minus money every now and then?" 
We would like to answer this question, which is 
most pertinent, from the Word of God/m our next. 



116 




VI 

The Priesthood and Its Maintenance 

HE Old Testament Priesthood is 
full of beautiful typical teaching 
for us. 

"Levi hath no part or inheri- 
tance with his brethren ; the Lord 
is his inheritance." (Deut. 10:9.) 
So the tribe of Levi, the priestly 
tribe, could not engage in business 
and make money like their brethren. "At that 
time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear 
the Ark of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to 
minister unto Him and to bless in His Name." 
(Deut. 10:8.) Doubly separated unto the Lord. 
First: in common with all Israel separated from 
the outside world, "For Israel was not numbered 
among the nations." So Christians today {real 
Christians, God's spiritual Israel) "are not of the 
world." Second: separated fro^m all Israel by a 
burden of solicitude and by a burden of blessing 
for all Israel, which precluded interest in other 
affairs. Typically it expressed, "The zeal of 
Thine house hath eaten me up." 

Were those Levites poor? Were they rich? 
Both. 

"Levi hath no part, nor inheritance with his 
brethren, the Lord is his inheritance, according 
as the Lord thy God promised him." And what 



117 



Faith Reminiscences 

had the Lord promised him? While forbidding 
them in connection with their services to take 
anything from their brethren, He would give the 
priestly tribe their portion from the burnt offer- 
ings and sacrifices Israel made to Him, "Holy 
things reserved from the fire." (Num. 18:9). 
Thus we see in the Jewish economy how closely 
shut up to God was the priesthood, God forever- 
more between them and the people. The people 
could not serve themselves .... of ... . the 
.... priests. The priests had no temptation to 
curry favor with the people. Israel must bring 
offerings to God, and out from those sacrifices 
made by fire to God He gave their due portion to 
His priests. All this is an exact type of His 
spiritual priesthood. 

They do not take tithes of the people; freely 
they have received, freely they give. ''Without 
purse," ''without scrip," "without sword," was 
His instruction when He sent out the seventy, 
and it was after His own pattern, as with the 
twelve He walked up and down in Judea, Galilee, 
and Samaria; He took no thought what He and 
they should eat, drink, or wherewithal they 
should be clothed, and His Father showed Him a 
fish from whose mouth He should obtain the 
money for the tax gatherer, or stirred the hearts 
of some women who ministered to Him of their 
substance. John the Baptist, as His forerunner, 
must be absolutely independent of the people that 
he might unflinchingly deliver his message to the 

118 



The Priesthood and Its Maintenance 

hour of his martyr-death. Thus he was in the 
wilderness until his showing to Israel, and his 
clothing was camel's hair, and his food locusts 
and wild honey. 

Yes, truly in the Christian dispensation God 
bade His people "concerning the collection for 
the saints .... upon the first day of the week 
let every one of you lay by him in store as God 
hath prospered him." Be sure that to a convert 
from Judaism it could never be less than the 
tenth of the prosperity God had given in the past 
week, for down the generations of their national 
existence had ever sounded the law of God ''con- 
cerning the tithes" .... "the tenth shall be the 
Lord's." (Lev. 27:32.) This the Israelites could 
not give the Lord, for it was always His, but as 
Malachi showed them they could of it rob the 
Lord by withholding; so having handed to the 
Lord His own, the tenth, they went in to give 
Him thank-offerings, etc., to that amount that at 
the end of the year, the average Jew under the 
old economy had brought God two-tenths, one- 
fifth of all his income; and in proportion as 
they gave to Him, God smiled upon them and 
blessed all their store. He does so still to His 
children of this Gospel dispensation. 

But while in the early church Paul bade the 
people lay by as God had prospered them, yet 
the eye of the spiritual priest was not to be upon 
that, but (as Paul himself was a notable ex- 
ample) upon God Himself for the supply of all; 

119 



Faith Reminiscences 

laboring with his own hands if necessary, or suf- 
fering need, that he should not be "burdensome" 
to the church or come at all under its control, in 
giving the message of the Lord among them. In 
the New as in the Old Testament, the Lord is 
Levi's inheritance, and if Levi of the spiritual 
priesthood has his eye upon God only as his in- 
heritance, how will God give out that inheritance 
to him? Just as He promised to literal Levi of 
old, from the burnt offerings and sacrifices to 
Himself, "all the best of the oil," "the best of the 
wine and the wheat," the "heave shoulder," and 
the "wave breast." Ah ! they should feed in the 
riches, the strength, and the affections of God ! 

None have passed into the spiritual priesthood 
but have experienced the faithfulness of these 
blessed types. So it is that we go forth without 
purse or scrip, with no provision for self, looking 
for nothing but the guidance of His eye, and the 
provision of His hand. Oh blessed independence 
of everything human ! Oh blessed utter depen- 
dence upon God alone! Truly such feed on the 
"heave shoulder," the strength of Jehovah Jesus, 
and on "the wave breast," the very heart of God. 
Shut up to God as our only means. He becomes 
to us "Lord of hosts," yea, all the hosts of the 
nether, upper, and this world are under His hand. 
He can use devils as He did to test and bless Job, 
He can use angels as He did to instruct and 
strengthen Daniel ; He can use a mosquito, or a 
gnat to turn in our favor the affairs of a king- 

120 



The Priesthood and Its Maintenance 

dom, as perhaps He did to rob Nebuchadnezzar 
of sleep when of him it was written, "that night 
he could not sleep." And on that sleeplessness 
hung all the events which wrought deliverance 
to the Jewish nation. 

Hallelujah ! What a God to be shut up to! No 
purse, no scrip — but God! 



121 



In 

Trinity College 



The Holy Ghost and Fire 




HAVE been asked to write out 
my experience on the fire line, 
and do so to the glory of God. 

I was converted when twenty 
years of age, in 1863, in New 
London, Conn., U. S. A., and 
joined the Second Congrega- 
tional Church. It was a power- 
ful conversion. God then gave me the full 
assurance of faith that I was born of the Spirit, 
an assurance undisturbed by doubts in all 
these thirty-four years' walk with God, save a 
few hours of a wandering mind in a fit of ill- 
ness. 

I had been converted but a few weeks when 
my attention was called to the keeping power 
of God through Jesus made of God unto us 
sanctification. I sought and obtained this 
wondrous experience. My mouth was full of 
laughter and singing. I could not say too 
much of the completeness I found in Jesus my 
Savior. In Him I was as free as a bird. I 
asked nothing. I seemed to soar a thousand 
miles above all I knew to be sin. He made it 
constant victory. But how long! Soon I heard 
the whispers among Christian people, ''She 
thinks she is holier than we." I was despised 



125 



In Trinity College 

for what was considered self-righteousness. 
Satan suggested, "Live it; say nothing about 
it." Thus I tried to save my reputation. I 
became silent, and soon lost the light God had 
so gloriously kindled in my soul. 

Seven years later, on the eve of going to In- 
dia as a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., I 
felt I must know again the mighty keeping 
power of God's sanctifying grace at any cost. 
In those last days of packing and preparation 
for my journey, God sent to our town Rev. 
W. S. and Mrs. Boardman and Miss Drake to 
hold what was in those days (1871) a novelty, 
a holiness convention. He graciously per- 
mitted me to attend, and after a public confes- 
sion to my townspeople of my previous vic- 
torious experience, and loss of it through base 
desire to preserve my reputation, God most 
tenderly met me again, baptizing me with His 
Spirit, and taking me into closest relation with 
Himself. Oh, how He manifested Himself to 
me, on shipboard and in the lonely land of 
strangers and heathen homes ! 

The time passed on in busy working for the 
Master in India, and afterwards in Great Brit- 
ain in a house of the Lord's healing (Beth- 
shan, London). For God had healed of incur- 
able disease my body, and let me know the joy 
of the Holy Ghost life in it, and the joy of thus 
recommending Him to others. 

In 1887 he brought me to this country and 

126 



The Holy Ghost and Fire 

into service in the city of Chicago. In writ- 
ing, teaching, and meditating on the Holy 
Ghost life, I often wondered what was meant 
by "the fire," in John the Baptist's words — 
"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost 
and with fire." 

Bless God for His infinite condescension and 
grace, I was destined to know. In my case, 
however, there was to be a great emptying 
before the filling. 

In connection with the Lord's work in our 
hands we had an annual convention, called in 
1889, in the month of June, at Western 
Springs. For months previous to this gath- 
ering I had been possessed with an all-devour- 
ing hunger for more of God. I knew not what 
I was after, for I had passed all the definite 
mile-stones set up in my theories of the path- 
way into God. He was my Savior in fullest 
assurance of faith. He was my Sanctification 
in daily experiences of life for service. I 
walked in the power of the Holy Ghost. I 
was in unbroken communion with Him, walk- 
ing in His undimmed presence, up to the high- 
est notch of all the grace He had ever revealed 
to me, and yet there was a wordless groan in 
my soul after God that it seemed could not 
intensify were I a lost soul just sinking into 
hell. It was a very interior though all-de- 
vouring hunger. I was never so still in my 
life. 

127 



In Trinity College 

In one of the first calls at the convention, 
to Christians seeking sanctification to come 
to the altar, at the risk of being misunder- 
stood, because prominently before the people 
as one of the callers of the convention and one 
of the leaders and teachers on these very lines, 
I rushed forward, saying, ''There is more of 
God for me, and I must have it." 

I found, as they followed suit, that I had 
voiced the need of many another worker and 
teacher. It was a wonderful service to my 
soul. I distinctly felt — i. e., knew — that in the 
act of obedience something gave way in my 
spirit before God as never before. I could 
not tell what He had done for me, but I 
realized a luxury of abandonment to Him that 
was new. Still He was leading the blind by a 
way she knew not. He had a test prepared 
for me that would launch me far out and en- 
able me to cut away shore lines. 

Among the large body of Christian work- 
ers that filled our platform that day was a 
young lady, secretary to a prominent writer. 
Her case, with its difficulties, was confiden- 
tially known to a little inner circle, and stirred 
all our tenderest sympathies. Many precious 
touches of God had been upon her spirit from 
time to time for years, yet a taste for strong 
drink, acquired in youth through a doctor's pre- 
scription to ease pain, was a tiger let loose in 
her appetites. Again and again she fell under 

128 



The Holy Ghost and Fire 

its power, only renewedly to rise and cast 
herself upon God. We who knew her sin and 
her sorrows had been holding in God by faith 
for deliverance for nearly two years. 

The morning of which I speak — next day 
after the altar service where God had so met 
me — this youn^ woman, whom for conveni- 
ence I will call A, with another was to sing 
a duet. Simultaneously a note was passed to 
me from the one to whom she was secretary, 
saying, ''Hold for some victory of God in A. 
She is in blank despair this morning." 

Seated at the back of the platform, all unob- 
served, I had closed my eyes, and was having 
a definite transaction with God over A. I 
asked, and by faith received, a working of God 
with her there. I remember stretching out 
my hand and closing my fingers over the an- 
swer, as if it were something material, re- 
ceived to sense, and thanking God for it, so 
definite was my faith. 

While thus praising Him, an inexpressible 
sweetness fell upon my spirit, and something 
which I thought was faintness got hold of my 
body. Not recognizing a connection between 
the two, I tried to rouse myself into my usual 
vigor of mind and body, and in an instant I 
was back again, and all alive to life around me. 
But, oh, the darkness that fell upon my soul ! 
Feeling that I had committed some sin, I 

129 



In Trinity College 

knew not what, I looked up to God and cried, 
"What is it? What have I done?" 

"You cannot trust Me," was the solemn re- 
buke. 

With consciousness of trust in Him as the 
very spring of all my life, I said, "But, Lord, 
I do trust Thee in everything." 

"No, you cannot trust Me to bless you in 
My own way." 

The answer was clear, distinct; and the light 
fell upon that shaking off of the weakness or 
faintness, as I called it, which accompanied 
His heavenly blessing. Instantly I felt a great 
recoil to be blessed in that way. Innumerable 
fears vexed me, that if I should yield I might 
be carried, I knew not whither. I had always 
had a strong self-control. Even in a dentist's 
chair, I would use nothing that would take 
me out of my self-holding, and I feared to 
give up my own control, even to be over- 
powered by God Himself! How deeply I was 
convicted of distrust in Him ! Yet there was 
such a struggle before I could even pray that 
God would make me at that hour what He 
wanted me to be. He was before me in Spirit 
with the question, "Would I be willing to let 
Him bless me, even by overpowering my spirit 
with His Spirit?" But, oh, if Satan should 
come while I was beyond self-holding, and 
make me do some monstrous or fanatical thing ! 
was the bugbear fear with which I withstood 

130 



The Holy Ghost and Fire 

my Lord. At last I said, *'Lord, give me a 
promise to stand on, and Thou shalt have Thy 
whole way with me." "He that was begotten 
of God keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth 
him not" (1 John 5 18, R. V.), flashed into my 
mind, with great light on the faithfulness of 
Christ the only-begotten Son of God, my 
Keeper. How could a God of such faithfulness 
let Satan have what I abandoned to Him? It 
swept all fear away. 

My whole being let go to God as I had 
never known the possibility before. I was 
away with God, "whether in the body or out 
of the body" I did not take reckoning. It was 
probably but a few seconds, but it seemed an 
eternity of His Holy presence, when the Lord 
approached me. I saw nothing, but I felt His 
approach as a Person, and, standing before 
me. He spoke into my spirit as clearly as a 
human being might speak to the mortal ear, 
"When they have done singing (for they were 
going on with the duet), go to A, and say quite 
loudly, so that all can hear (there were now 
perhaps 1,000 assembled in the tent; it was 
crowded), Tf you will confess to the people 
and ask them to pray for you, God will now 
come and deliver you.' " 

In an instant there was a recoil in my whole 
being to which the other was mild. A tor- 
rent of thoughts and objections rose up within 
me. 

131 



In Trinity College 

Oh, what a foolish plan ! That will never 
do. A is so reticent, refined in her instincts, 
withal so high-spirited. Why, it would be the 
very way to defeat the end desired, etc. 

When the rapid action of my mind had spent 
itself, I came to silence. God, as a Person, im- 
perturbable, was quietly waiting before me. 
Shall I ever forget the majesty of that hour? 
It was burned into me that I had to do, not 
with a plan, but a God. What would I say to 
Him? Jn my soul the stillness deepened in 
His awful presence. He was waiting. What 
should I say? 

But the plan was so foolish! Besides, I 
felt it was in a way a breach of confidence 
thus to expose her. The struggle was intense 
— the desire to please God and the revolt from 
the way. In the radiancy of His presence, 
felt but not seen, I was held. 

At last my heart said, "Give me a prayer to 
pray, dear Lord." 

"Make me willing for Thy way," came with 
it. "My thoughts are not your thoughts," 
for "the foolishness of God is wiser than the 
wisdom of man." 

I felt my spirit being lifted over to God's 
side in the matter, only a little fear how she 
would take it remaining, and I said, "Lord, 
give me another prayer." 

At once I felt at liberty to cry, "Lord, pre- 
pare her for my coming, and I will go." 

132 



The Holy Ghost and Fire 

I knew in an instant it would be so. And 
let me say here that when all I am about to 
relate had passed, dear A. said, "While I was 
singing I was told Miss Lizzie was coming 
and something would happen to me." 

My whole being now in deepest rest, I lis- 
tened for the last line of the hymn, and with 
its very last I rose in God. I cannot describe 
it, but it seemed as if God was walls around 
me, ground beneath me, ceiling over me. Thus 
shut in, I went forward to the front of the plat- 
form, and, with my face on A. and back to the 
congregation, I repeated quite loudly, so that 
all could hear, as He had told me, my message 
from the Lord. Had I been an automaton, I 
could not have moved more mechanically, or 
with less sense of responsibility. 

As my human reason had foretold, she 
thrilled with indignation, and stiffened in my 
embrace. She seemed a rod of hot iron. I 
felt her fiery spirit leap out upon me from 
every pore of her flesh. I was unmoved. Im- 
bedded in God ! The affair was His, not mine. 
"Such grace to me was given." As I stood in 
simple mechanical obedience before the re- 
sistance of this fier}^ spirit, suddenly heaven 
opened above my soul, and from the throne of 
God came flowing down great streams of love 
in hot tides — a heat of Divine love that, in 
comparison, made her spirit seem cool. 
Through, and through, and through me, swept 

133 



In Trinity College 

the Divine currents, and out upon her in such 
words as God gave. 

I knew very little about it — automatically 
used. The Spirit clothed Himself with me 
that hour! (Judges 6, 34, R. V., margin.) 
I was pre-occupied with the amazing revela- 
tion that was being made through my being, 
that "God is love." By her drooping upon my 
shoulder weeping, my attention was recalled 
to A, "Love's resistless current sweeping" 
had borne away all the heat of her indignation, 
and, bruised and broken, she lay sobbing in 
my arms. She afterwards said to a friend, *T 
never knew Miss Lizzie loved me so." 

Ah ! it was no love of mine. As much, per- 
haps more, a revelation to me than to her ; and 
now the heavenly tides turned all to lovers di- 
vinest strength of encouragement, as I be- 
sought her to obey the Lord. He would cer- 
tainly free her now. 

After a few minutes, or seconds, perhaps — 
for I am aware all this takes more time in tell- 
ing than it did in passing — she raised her head 
and confessed to the wondering congregation 
that she was among them "a hypocrite and a 
sinner, etc. ;" would they pray for her deliver- 
ance? then fell on her knees, calling on God 
for mercy. It is safe to say nearly the whole 
audience was instantly in the same position. 
The place was rocking with the power of God. 
There was weeping everywhere, and such 

134 



The Holy Ghost and Fire 

praying! But upon me, as I essayed to re- 
ceive by faith her deliverance, fell the most 
severe spiritual and physical struggle of my 
life. I seemed carried away out in a conflict 
among the spiritual forces of good and evil, 
and as I sought there to touch the throne of 
God with faith's finger, Satan leaped upon my 
body. I could with difficulty breathe, and fell 
writhing to the floor. It seemed long ere, em- 
powered of God, I broke the dark forces with- 
standing me, but as I did, the power that 
caused my suffering fell off my body except 
one arm, and I rose to my feet, begging the 
people to take with me by faith her deliver- 
ance. 

As many of them began to realize their 
privilege, and thus come over to the victory 
side, she rose radiant, declaring it was done. 

In the meantime, that evil power, that had 
still hold of my right arm, was twisting it into 
inconceivable positions. It was lame in the 
socket for a couple of days thereafter. 

But as A. rose to her feet, the last vestige 
of this fell away from me, and the hot tides 
from the heavenly land began to fall again 
through my being; but now it was all Glory. 
I was dazed with the Glory of God. 

Capt. Kelso Carter, of Baltimore, had been 
announced to preach that morning, as Rev. 
A. B. Simpson, of New York, had the day pre- 

135 



In Trinity College 

vious ; but everything seemed swept from the 
boards by the Holy Ghost. 

Many since have told me how wondrous was 
my talk at an altar service, at that hour. I, 
however, was responsible for none of it, for 
Another used me, while so pre-occupying me 
with Himself and His glory, that I have since 
no recollection of what was said or done 
among the people. 

As I staggered about the platform, filled 
with unutterable glory, I could but say to my- 
self, **Oh, this is the Holy Ghost and fire. 
Why, I am drunk — drunk with God and 
glory !" 

Suddenly there flashed in upon me the ac- 
count of Acts 2 : "These men are filled with 
new wine." 

"No wonder," I thought, "they called them 
drunk!" There was new light on how they 
all appeared that morning in Jerusalem ! Yes, 
the ascended Jesus, "having received of the 
Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, hath 
shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." 

Glory ! Glory ! Glory ! to his ever-blessed 
name. 

The whole time that elapsed from "the 
glory of the Lord" thus gathering me up (Isa. 
8:8, margin) till He lifted the power, and let 
me down again amidst the passing events of 
life, was about three and a half hours. 

I had always been greatly opposed to all 

136 



The Holy Ghost and Fire 

demonstration and excitement in religion, and 
when all was over, my gratitude to my hea- 
venly Father was unbounded, that He had put 
this marvellous demonstration through me, ere 
He put it before me in another. 

It was a joy to bear any ridicule and loss of 
respect that came to me through this public 
demonstration of the power (1 Cor. 2:4) of the 
Holy Ghost, God had seen fit to grant upon 
me. I could meekly remember that before God 
had so handled me, I, too, would have despised 
the same demonstration in another. 

But, oh, how wily is Satan ! For some 
months he succeeded in robbing me of some 
of the lessons my Father was teaching me. 
For I thought (how Satan helps our thoughts !) 
this was a thing not often to be spoken of, lest 
it bring other souls into bondage, seeking a 
like experience, which, of course, they will 
never get ! 

It was an exceptional dealing of God with 
me for another; special power for special ser- 
vice. 

God is not likely ever to repeat any such 
thing, etc. 

But as the weeks rolled into months I was 
astonished to find the effects of this fiery bap- 
tism upon me were permanent, and far greater 
than any power it had over A., or any others 
who were that day blest at the Western 
Springs Convention. 

137 



In Trinity College 

My whole being was responsive to God in 
a new way. I was in the Holy Ghost before, 
but now, oh, how different ! In trying to ex- 
plain it to myself, it seemed the Holy Ghost 
wrapped around me as the atmosphere the 
folded bud, but now that same blessed Holy 
Ghost atmosphere had warmed every petal to 
unfolding, till it lay a full blown rose, luxuriat- 
ing in the heavenly atmosphere, its very heart 
all response to God. 

We all know language is lame and language 
is tame. I only speak comparatively, for I 
should have said previous to this that my 
whole heart was in response to God. It cer- 
tainly found no response to any but Him. 
Now, however, there seemed some new capac- 
ities Godward. 

Yet there was little change in my teaching 
on the baptism of the Holy Ghost. No urg- 
ing others to seek the holy fire, thinking it 
was a peculiar experience God had given me, 
until in November of the same year, I attend- 
ed Mrs. Woodworth's meetings on the West 
Coast. 

Here in Oakland I heard her boldly voicing 
and allowing others to testify to experiences 
that I could not but recognize as similar to 
what God had put through me. And in pro- 
portion as the privilege was urged upon all to 
come under the power and fire of the Holy 
Ghost, the witnesses to it increased. 

138 



The Holy Ghost and Fire 

Alone in my own room, flat on my face be- 
fore God and His open Word, what days I had 
as I searched out His will in this matter ! It 
was going to mean much to me, to go back to 
Chicago and teach this power and fire, for I 
saw in proportion as the power increased in 
that Oakland work, the Satanic rage increased 
around it. 

But God settled many things so securely in 
His Word, that I could not go back from the 
experience and teaching of the fire of the Holy 
Ghost, not even when Satan came not only 
upon the work, but into the work, as he did 
somewhat in Oakland before it ended. But 
this lesson was needed, and perhaps to me 
most needful of all. 

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try 
the spirits." ''Many false spirits are gone 
abroad." From this I learned that there were 
false spirits, so there was false power and false 
fire, and that upon every new plane of life God 
puts us, a fresh devil zvill there contend with us. 
Too wise to meet us with what Jesus has con- 
quered for us before, Satan assails our inex- 
perience, and, as an angel of light, he counter- 
feits the real. 

Alas for those who fall into the counterfeit! 
Alas for those who, seeing the counterfeit, fall 
into Satan's trap by confusing the real with 
the false ! Both are crippled for Christian life, 
and liable to suffer dwarfage in the higher 

139 



In Trinity College 

forms of Christian development. There is a 
Scylla and a Charybdis here. But God, rich 
in mercy, can restore such. For a time I fell 
into the counterfeit, by believing some proph- 
ecies uttered by one under a power, which I 
took for the power of the Holy Ghost. The 
prophecies proved false. I was guilty of an 
error of judgment, and in the recoil that came 
among Christian workers all over the United 
States about those false prophecies, I was 
spiritually beheaded, because as an actual eye- 
witness of the power of God displayed in those 
meetings I could not but (letting God sift 
things for me) stand hy the true as well as 
against the false therein. 

And now I learned the mighty benefit of the 
baptism of fire as power to suffer. Blessed, 
thrice blessed, is he who knows the fire of the 
Holy Ghost as pozver for service! But what 
shall I say of him who feels within him the fire 
of love as power to suffer? The fellowship of 
His suffering (Phil. 3 :10) is a greater gift than 
the fellowship of His service. God, who is a 
liberal Giver, withholds neither. Bless Him ! 

Through general distrust of me on the above 
account, from a wide sphere of service I sank 
into comparative obscurity. In the inconspic- 
ous corners where God put me. He made 
my heart to sing as He showed me He was not 
after quantity, but quality, in the work of God ; 
and I had the joy of seeing souls brought out, 

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The Holy Ghost and Fire 

under a fire of the Holy Ghost, on far deeper 
lines than ever before my privilege in any ser- 
vice with Him. 

One thing more : God has taught me it is 
not a baptism of fire in the power of which we 
walk henceforth, but that while we live in 
Him, walking in all obedience, all abandon- 
ment to Him, He will teach us ever-deepening 
abandonment, and from time to time, at His 
sovereign will, there might come mightier ava- 
lanches of fire upon our abandoned spirit. 

As, for instance, God came upon me, at the 
close of a convention in Old Orchard, some 
years ago, and the power of the Holy Ghost 
was not lifted from about half-past ten one 
night until a quarter to four next afternoon, 
and resulted in a great gathering of God's peo- 
ple upon their knees, in an all-night and all- 
day meeting of much blessing. Next year at a 
noon prayer meeting in John Street, New 
York, I heard a clergyman say that two hun- 
dred ministers received the Holy Ghost at 
that Old Orchard meeting. 

I have no means of knowing of the exact- 
ness of this statement, but it is true that since 
that day I have continued to meet both clergy 
and lay people from North, South, East, and 
West, who in that meeting received a mighty 
inletting into God. I perhaps knew less of 
what was being done in the meeting (except 
as God showed it to me in the Spirit) than any- 

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one present, never having met the visible 
leader, Benjamin Luscomb — a warrior who 
has since fallen on Africa's mission-field — nor 
did I see his face till taken out of the power of 
the Spirit when the meeting closed, nor learn 
his name till the next day. It was much the 
same with my relations to others. I was trans- 
ported in the immediate presence of God; like 
a great bell ringing in the Divine hand, "Vic- 
tory ! Victory ! Victory !" As He kept me thus, 
in the power of the Spirit, on the victory side 
the people fell under Him. 

Again, when laboring one time on the island 
of Nantucket, I was conversing with an infi- 
del, in his home, the power of God came might- 
ily upon me, and his invalid mother, who had 
not walked a step or stood for twenty-two 
years, lacking a month or two, was instantly 
filled with the same mighty power, and, shout- 
ing "Glory to God!" came out of her bed, into 
the room in which a number of us sat, perfectly 
healed. Addressing her son, she said, "Mark 
my words, George ; I shall yet walk the streets 
of Nantucket, leaning on your arm, and you 
converted to God." The miracle shook out his 
infidelity, the Holy Ghost began to convict of 
sin ; three months from that day he was bap- 
tized in the Atlantic Ocean, she standing by. 
We have no right to discount God's operations 
because they fall outside of our experiences, 
or even our philosophies, «'/ they yield the fruit of 
the Spirit ;"By their fruits ye shall know them." 

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The Holy Ghost and Fire 

There may be others like myself. I bound 
God in with a hoop of my theories and my ex- 
perience, but lo ! when He opened my eyes, I 
found God was greater outside of my hoop 
than He ever had been in it. 

I am convinced there is a boundless reser- 
voir of grace in the "diversities of operations" 
(1 Cor. 12:6) of the Holy Ghost, that Satan's 
cunning hides from the people of God. "If 
any man think that he knoweth anything, he 
knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" 
(1 Cor. 8:2). "Quench not any manifestation 
of the Spirit" (IThes. 5:19, Rotherham). 

Oh, I feel to call upon my soul and all that 
is within me, to go on with God to all the 
mighty things of the Spirit as He shall be 
pleased to lead. We have gone but a lit- 
tle way with God. May the writer and reader 
of this humble account of His past grace be 
"strengthened with might by His Spirit in the 
inner man ; that Christ may dwell in (our) 
hearts by faith, that, (we) being rooted and 
grounded in love, may be able to comprehend 
with all saints what is the breadth and length 
and depth and height, and to know the love 
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we 
might be filled with all the fullness of God." 

PUB. NOTE. — This is the reprint of a tract writ- 
ten about fifteen years ago. In the light of the "new 
thing" God is now doing in the earth — viz., the gift 
of Pentecostal fire, with "new tongues," — the author 
has kept pace with God's movings and experienced the 
"latter rain" droppings. 

143 



II 




Jewel Joints 

N ONE of those inimitable de- 
scriptions of the Bride given in 
the book of Canticles, that precious 
mystical book of Christ, the Bride- 
groom sings of the "jewels of her 
thighs," Sol. Song 7:1. Many 
wonderful things are said of her 
exquisite spiritual beauty, but love- 
ly as are all her ornaments, and rich as are the 
symbols used to describe her spiritual graces, no 
word so choice as that given to the joints. "The 
joints of thy thighs like jewels;" joints, the un- 
seen, covered forces. Jewels are they? If so, 
seen only by that Eye before which all is open 
and naked. The thigh is a source of great 
strength in all its movements, but it is powerless 
if its joints go stiff. 

What is the secret power which moves the 
various members of the body? In nature, the 
joints; in the mystical Body, the prayer-joints. 
These when in proper action are jewels to the 
eyes of the heavenly Bridegroom. 

In all earthly dominions there are jewels too 
precious for any but the King: crown jewels, 
such as the Orloff, Great Mogul, Sancy, Kohi- 
noor, etc. Notice the Kohinoor before cut weighs 
186 carats; after, 102 >^. Great Mogul before 



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Jewel Joints 

cut 787^, after 240 carats. Instead of hand- 
cutting which would have required years, the 
Great Mogul was reduced in a laboratory with 
a four horse-power turned on the precious gem, 
and thus was cut in thirty-eight days. This 
speaks of prayer-drill as God knows how to give 
it, and in these last, most momentous days God 
is putting horse-power and steam-power upon the 
willing saints, finishing the work fast. 

We are told of the Orloff that in some parts 
of the work to grind out a deep flaw the wheel 
made three thousand revolutions per minute (al- 
ways bearing about in the body, the dying of the 
Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be 
made manifest in our mortal flesh." II. Cor. 
4:10). The uncut Orloff sold for $10,000; cut, 
for $60,000; still further cut for $450,000. God 
in some is going to have more than "diamonds 
in the rough." Christians, will we stand it? May 
He cut us as jewel- joints? Kings have been 
known to give their choicest gems to some great 
artist of the stage or of music. So Christ gives 
His choice jewel, prayer- work, to those who are 
willing to be trained for it. 

Of this training we have an illustration in the 
cherubim; those wonderful types of perfected 
humanity. Cherubim in the temple were seen 
everywhere, on the walls of the Holiest, carved 
on the doors, embroidered on the curtains, molten 
as ornaments on the great lavers of cleansing, 
etc., for all things must go by the cherubim, thus 

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In Trinity College 

teaching that salvation's plan moves forward by 
His people; proportionately as His life matures 
in them can His plan move by us. So of per- 
fected humanity there are many advancing 
grades as we consent to let the Lord take us still 
further down and out. 

In the Holy of holies Moses was bidden to 
make two immense cherubim of choice wood 
overlaid with pure gold, whose outspread, con- 
jured wings should fill the whole space from side 
to side, high up near the ceiling. They should 
look outward upon the great congregation gath- 
ered there. All this spoke of natures that had 
become choice through grace, but constantly cov- 
ered of Christ — the Pure Gold; unity at last, 
"their wings kissing one another." High up, the 
earthly all beneath them ! With uplifted wing 
and outward gaze, intense activity, intense sym- 
pathy symbolized. Precious matured Christian 
workers ! 

But cut down figures of the same; cherubim, 
oh, so comparatively small (Ex. 25:17-20) were 
underneath them, whose one business was, look- 
ing down upon the mercy seat, and the ark of 
the covenant within it. In these smaller cherubim 
where was the mighty breadth of expanse shown 
in the precious wood of the structure of the glor- 
ious cherubim above them? Gone. Where was 
the active relation to the vast outside congrega- 
tion of Israel? Gone. How insignificant their 
vocation! How shrunken their dimension! But 

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Jewel Joints 

these were all gold, and "of one matter with 
THE MERCY SEAT."" ("Enoch was not ;" "Not I, 
but Christ;" "Christ Who is your life.") 

Does not this show how God sometimes deals 
with the jewel-souls whom He is deepening in the 
prayer-life? Seeming great loss, but wondrous 
gain. For mark how God says, "There I will 
meet with thee and there will I commune with 
thee from above the mercy seat, from between the 
two cherubim, which are upon the ark of the 
testimony, of all things which I will give thee 
in commandment unto the children of Israel." 
Ex. 25 :22. "Oh thou that dwellest betzveen the 
cherubim, shine forth !" Is not this the cry of 
the Spirit through the ages? And has He not 
been ever delayed in the shining forth, because 
He has not had the dwelling place between the 
cherubim? We have given Him ourselves mat- 
ter for the larger cherubim in the glory of their 
blessed Christian activities, but when He would 
cut closer and make us one matter with the mercy 
seat only, we have not understood the reducing 
processes and therein have hindered Him. 

The most exquisitely noble of all lovers, Jesus, 
in bringing forth the bride-nature in us, will 
have nothing that we reluctantly yield Him. He 
can wait upon our tardiness with the patience 
of a God, but He cannot in these upward pro- 
cesses pluck our half consent as an unripe fruit, 
or an unopened flower. Hence He has not yet 
had a place from whence to "shine forth" in the 

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In Trinity College 

fulness of His salvation-glory. Among the chil- 
dren of men, will not that shining forth be when 
Jesus' prayer is answered, "Neither pray I for 
these alone, but for them also which shall believe 
on me, through their word; that they all may 
BE one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in 
Thee, that they also may be one in us ; that the 
WORLD may believe that Thou hast sent Me." 
"I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be 
made perfect in one ; that the world may know 
that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them as 
Thou hast loved me." The world waits to see the 
divinity of God displayed in His ''Church which 
is His body." 

How shall this full maturity and unity of His 
body be accomplished? By ''that which every 
joint supplieth." The whole body is fitly joined, 
compacted, increased, built up, in love (its only 
life) by the "effectual working" of these blessed 
joints: jewel-joints. 

Illustrate? It was the writer's privilege to be 
in some meetings with two Pentecostal mission- 
aries from Africa. She could not keep away from 
those meetings in which they appeared because 
there was sure to be blessing ; and yet they were 
strangely handicapped, not recognized, not given 
place to teach or speak, for they were surrounded 
by those who were afraid of "Pentecost and 
tongues." Alone with this man and his wife 
one day she began to indignantly exclaim about 
the way they were treated. They both laughed 

148 



Jewel Joints 

gleefully, saying, "Why don't you know there is 
a visible and invisible priesthood in the Lord's 
realm? There may be the priest, the outward 
leader of the meeting, but God may otherwise 
appoint a spiritual, invisible priest who, anointed, 
holds the meeting for Him, in prayer, in faith, 
and to that priest the Lord responds and makes 
the place to bud and blossom as the rose." They 
were too modest (had too much of the invisi- 
bility of "joints," jewel- joints) to say so, but 
then I saw why each meeting in which they sat, 
cold and spiritless, and heavy as it might be at 
the beginning and on for a while, mayhap, finally 
ended in real victory for Jesus. 

Again, holding services amid a little company 
who expressed a desire for an all-night's meeting, 
the last night of the year, a plan seemed to be 
given the leader for several of the flock to take 
an hour each with a twenty minute Bible reading, 
and then throw open the rest of their hour for 
prayer, praise, testimony and thanksgiving. 
Among other names that came before him was 
that of a little French woman, in the lower 
walks of life; illiterate but spiritual, who had 
never come forward so prominently as that be- 
fore, though always ready with a glad testimony. 
When she was called to take her hour, with a 
much abashed air she came saying, "When a week 
ago our leader asked me to take this hour, I had 
the day before been on my face in front of the 
Lord and as I looked back over the year, I was 

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In Trinity College 

so ashamed before Him that I had so man/ 
times said "No," and I promised the Lord that 
by His grace in the New Year I would never say 
"No" again, always "Yes." So when asked to 
take this hour, though the thought cut like a 
knife, I could only answer "I cannot say No." 
But when I got home the devil began to nag me ; 
he said, "Ugh, you going to lead that meeting? 
You cannot lead a meeting. Even when you be- 
gin to walk up the platform steps what will 
Great Five Talents and Big Ten Talents think? 
They will say, *Ugh, here comes little One Talent 
to teach us. Great Five Talent and Ten Talent! 
Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! O, I feel so small, I go lo 
God with many tears. I tell Him all. He says, 
'Not so, my child, there is so much love in that 
place, that when Great Five Talent and Big Ten 
Talent see you coming they will say, "Oh here 
comes our poor dear little sister One Talent. God 
has asked little One Talent to speak, now we 
must help her with our prayers,' and they will 
pray and believe so much — for they will be very 
sorry for little One Talent — ^that God's Spirit will 
be poured out, and that will be the best meeting 
of all." So it was. As she told her story with 
tears trickling down her cheeks, Love Divine in 
her seemed to sweetly challenge Love Divine In 
the congregation, all hearts were in prayer for 
her. She opened the Bible and spoke; she was 
verily inspired. Before or since, some of us 
never heard such liquid grace flow from mortal 

150 



Jezvel Joints 

lips — working joints in the Body. How blessed ! 

We know that if the natural body becomes stiff- 
jointed it is useless, a painful failure. For how 
many centuries has Christ's body suffered much 
defeat for want of working joints. Have you 
ever been a stiff- joint in the Body? How the 
Lord has taken the writer through her Christian 
life to show her that largely she has been a stiff 
joint ! Whenever she sat in the room with Chris- 
tians who were speaking of the failings of some 
other Christian and she heard without retiring 
into God and looking for a prayer in behalf of 
that faulty one of whom they spoke, she was a 
stiff joint instead of a working joint. And now 
that God has got her ear, how blessed to absent 
herself from all talk to which God does not then 
and there directly call her, and be carrying the 
needs, the sorrows, the faults, the frailties of 
her fellow believers up to Him in prayer. Oh 
the answers, the beautiful answers that come! 

Sitting in the church — and, if spiritual — dis- 
appointed with all around you, yet undiscour- 
aged, carrying the hour, the people and the 
preacher up to God, while He gives enabling 
faith to bring down blessings — you are a "sup- 
plying joint." 

"Redeeming the time as wise" has come to 
mean among other things, buying up the oppor- 
tunities for prayer, and they are around us every- 
where. We cannot see or hear of a lack any- 
where in God's people, in His work, in His world, 

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In Trinity College 

but we have a call to prayer. Oh, how busy we 
become with the busy, busy, business of prayer! 
The glad answers, how they multiply upon us! 

Now we begin to see why these working pray- 
er-joints are to God so beautiful. Jewels of 
God! And how as fast as we get an inkling of 
this place of power, the place of the joints, God 
can pass us on from class to class of His advanced 
prayer-workers. He has much instruction to 
give us along this line. 

By these prayer- joints, or rather in answer 
to these prayer- joints, will He make His people 
one ; will He get out the hundreds of thousands 
of new missionaries for the crowning evangel- 
izing efforts of these last days, and by the Holy 
Ghost loose the monies ("the gold and the silver 
are Mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills") 
to carry forward all the grand salvation work. 

But oh! if we would learn to be "supplying 
joints" in the large, we must let our precious 
Lord bring us into the detail, for it is in our 
moment by moment relations, all we see, feel 
and hear of the various members of the Body 
around us, that we must be gathered up, into the 
prayer of the jewel joints He waits to make us. 
"All the body by joints and bands having nourish- 
ment ministered, . . . knit together, . . . 
increaseth, . . . with the increase of God.!" 

Gone for us the idle moment, the judging mo- 
ment, the newsy moment, we leave that for those 
of lesser spiritual capacity. God is calling us 

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Jewel Joints 

into the high office of spiritual priests unto God; 
the prayer office of Jewel joints. Wouldst be a 
jewel-joint in the Bridegroom's Bride? Thou 
mayst. He waits to make thee such. The place 
for praying ones was never so open as now. God 
never so loudly called into it as now. Never so 
many were pressing in as now. Never the Holy 
Ghost so brooding to make "remembrancers'' 
"who cease not night nor day" as now. Take 
His own word "Jewels" and break at His feet, 
and ask Him to make you one. 



153 




Ill 

The Heavenly Housekeeper 

ND Moses verily was faithful in 
all his house, as a servant, for 
a testimony of those things which 
were to be spoken after; but 
Christ as a son over his own 
house ; whose house are we, if we 
hold fast the confidence and the 
rejoicing of the hope firm unto 
the end. Heb. 3 :5, 6. 

A dear friend who lives in a very grand house, 
was telling me of the increasing difficulty, as the 
years go by, of getting servants in this age of 
lawlessness and insubordination, especially as she 
lives in a suburban town. "They will not go to 
the country" she said, "they want to live near to 
the theatres, and all the gaieties of the city." Then 
followed a painful description of how their house- 
keeper left them, and unable to secure another, 
she and her daughter had nearly worn their lives 
away trying to do the housekeeper's work. 

While she was speaking my heart was dancing. 
O, the contrast with my Heavenly Housekeeper! 
And did I not also know what it was to wear my 
life away trying to keep house till He came; and 
this was the fashion of it. He drew my attention 
to the above precious words in Hebrews, and bade 
me mark the contrast between the faithful 



154 



The Heavenly Housekeeper 

Moses, so true to God as a servant in His house, 
and the faithfulness to the Father of Christ — 
the heavenly Son over His house, "whose house 
are we." O, glory to God ! And He was then 
really installed as Housekeeper over me, as God's 
house? And had I nothing to do but just let the 
affairs of the house go into His hands? Keep 
my hands off, and just delightedly watch Him 
manage it all ? This was exactly what He showed 
me that glad day. He was within as House- 
keeper with His retinue of underlings waiting to 
do all His will. Yes, retinue, for He makes 
everything serve Him when He comes forth to 
work. "Stormy winds fulfilling His word," sun- 
shine, and shadow alike cooperating. Even the 
devil and all his attacks are used by Christ to 
Satan's own defeat, and our great enlargement 
in God, when Jesus has full sway. Pledged to 
God faithfully to do His work, "as Son over His 
own house." 

My part ? Just to recognize that He was there 
to do it all, and rejoice in the fact. "Son over 
His own house, whose house are we if we hold 
fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope." 
As the light of all this burst over me, I just sat 
down in the house and was glad, and let the 
Heavenly Housekeeper do all the work. "All 
went merry as a marriage bell." The more I re- 
joiced, the more I entered into rest. The more I 
entered into rest, the more I rejoiced. He did 
not need any of my help, I was just left to sing 

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In Trinity College 

the song of His faithfulness. The Father "who 
appointed Him" was singing it above, and I be- 
low. What a chorus? "Faithful! Faithful! 
Faithful ! Heavenly Housekeeper !" How clean 
He kept His house ! what lovely pictures hung 
on the walls! (All pictures of Jesus in His mani- 
fold beauteous relations to us.) How in every 
room of spirit, soul and body, He energized and 
kept things harmoniously moving. How sweet 
to feel all the powers of one's being in leading 
strings to Him. How sacred the holy awe that 
He was there doing all. Thus the glad days sped 
on ; for conscious love moves time on wings. 

Then came an hour when the powers of dark- 
ness gathered thick about my soul, fierce tempta- 
tions ; happiness had fled and dull lifeless inertia 
seemed all there was of me. In the midst of it 
all, came a wee voice, "Am I just as faithful a 
Housekeeper now?" My spirit groaned — "It 
does not feel that way." "But am I ?" Oh ! who 
can say that Christ is ever unfaithful? "Oh, 
Christ, Thou must be 'faithful as a Son over 
His own house,' whose house, bless God, I am. 
But why am I thus ?" "It is the old lesson, child, 
of trusting Me in the dark the same as in the 
light." "Who is among you that feareth the 
Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that 
tvalketh in darkness and hath no light; let him 
trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his 
God." "Hold fast the confidence and the rejoic- 
ing of the hope firm to the end." "But, Lord, 

156 



The Heavenly Housekeeper 

when I have no spirit of prayer?" "Will you 
trust Me that I am in the house as Heavenly 
Housekeeper then?" "x\nd there is no light on 
the sacred page?" "Will you trust Me that I am 
in the house faithfully keeping it then ?" "When 
I am sent on no errands, bidden go nowhere?" 
"Am I still faithful? Do I understand My busi- 
ness, am I at it?" And I knew the Father was 
singing — "Faithful ! Faithful ! as a Son over His 
own house whose house Elizabeth is." I must 
make it a duet, so I began in the darkness sing- 
ing — "Faithful ! Faithful ! Faithful over His own 
house, whose house I am." "He giveth songs in 
the night" if we yield to Him,, and truly they are 
richer and sweeter in their outworking than the 
songs of the light ; Hallelujah ! For when the 
smoke of battle had cleared away. He who al- 
ways understood, made me to understand this 
much — "I only design thy dross to consume and 
thy gold to refine." I was the dross, Jesus was 
the Gold; He would have the house empty of all 
but Himself. There must be the nothingness of 
the creature, and the All-of-God. This work 
proceeds most rapidly when we walk in the night 
of faith, i.e., a dead reckoning of faith, on His 
Faithfulness. Hallelujah ! Who but a God 
would know how to accomplish this ! Therefore, 
does He let us be emptied from vessel to vessel, 
and go mto captivity that the taste of self may 
not remain in us — and the smell of self pass 
away. (Jer. 48:11.) "This also cometh forth 

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In Trinity College 

from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in 
counsel, and excellent in working." 

Much confusion arises because we fail to see 
that ''trees of the Lord's planting" — His precious 
saved ones, like trees of the natural world — have 
a double growth, a summer and a winter growth. 
How delightful is springtime's wooing! Then 
the sap is called up from the roots and begins 
to flow and enlarge the trunk, and spread in the 
branches, and push out to the tiniest twigs and 
buds in all their extremities, and burst to a 
beauty of green leafiness, or mayhap, a bright 
fragrant bloom, and proceed to set and form and 
mature the delicious fruit or nut or spice. 

Fair, indeed, is summer's growth in nature or 
in grace. But what of the winter ? Ah ! it plays 
a deeper and more important part, though many 
observers take no note of it. It is when the 
sunless days and chilly winds and high storms 
have stripped the tree bare that the shivering 
sap or life slowly retreats from outmost bough 
through trunk to root. And then, what? Oh, 
now begins the winter's growth? The healthy 
tree is only as big above ground as it is below. 
There is where it strikes its hold in life. For 
every branch and bough and twig above ground 
there are ramifications of similar roots and root- 
lets. Like many mighty arms, strong hands, and 
tiny clutching fingers they lay hold of the soil 
in which they are embedded and draw their life 
from thence. This is done when forbidding cold 

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The Heavenly Housekeeper 

has driven the life-sap from its above-ground 
progress to its liidden movements beneath the 
soil. Then it is when the tree's most important 
growth takes place. The roots strengthen, root* 
and rootlets stretch out and occupy more space 
in the soil beneath ; more soil to feed upon, more 
life or sap, more feeding power, more increase 
of length and breadth of root. 

Wildest storms find it hard to uproot the trees 
of many winters' growth, whose underground 
limbs have taken such deep and extensive hold 
upon the soil. After each winter's growth and 
feeding, with a mighty uprush, the reinvigorated 
sap runs into the trunk, enlarging it and pushing 
out each limb and bough and branch and twig; 
enlarging above ground with the growth of the 
long, dark winter underground. For the sum- 
mer's growth would be top-heavy and full of 
danger if it were not thus prepared for by the 
winter's underground enlargement. 

Thus in the trees of the Lord's planting. He 
gives us many a summer experience when the 
sap of His life flows through all our sensuous 
being, and everybody, self included, can see our 
growth ; such an hour is the ''sky blue conver- 
sion," or the glorious sanctification with the Holy 
Spirit's seal thereto, or divine healing, a miracle 
of His life in our body, or some marvelous revel- 
ation of Himself in His Word, or in His dispen- 
sational plan ; some mighty Pentecost with 
tongues, or some marvelous fruitage in Chris- 

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In Trinity College 

tian service. But sooner or later, after each and 
all, comes the time when God robs every sen- 
suous part of the being of its life or ''experience," 
and by naked faith, or the winter of the soul, 
God (the Christian's soil) and His faithfulness 
is all the soul has left. Now it burrows in that 
SOIL, and while it does not know itself growing, 
and all who see it make sure it is not growing, 
it is striking root in God as never before; pre- 
paring for a still larger summer growth. 

Thus summer and winter experiences chase 
each other in rapid succession as God sets the 
seasons, for we are "God's tillage." A blood- 
bought property which He hath secured at such 
expenditure He will not neglect to cultivate. Our 
cooperation, which expedites the work, is con- 
stant trust through summer and through winter. 
Faith in His faithfulness ! Christ is faithful to 
Him that appointed Him, as a Son over His own 
house. His house ! God's tree ! Hallelujah ! 
Thank God for the Heavenly Housekeeper! 

"Wherefore, let them that suffer according to 
the will of God commit the keeping of their souls 
to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." 



160 




IV 

Blessings from Under the Threshold* 

WANT to read a part of the 
forty-seventh chapter of Ezek- 
iel. "Afterward he brought me 
again unto the door of the 
house ; and behold waters issued 
out from under the threshold of 
the house eastward : . . . . And 
when the man that had the line 
in his hand went forth eastward, he measured 
a thousand cubits, and he brought me through 
the waters ; the waters were to the ankles." 
Standing in God ! That is what we need 
these days ; independence of the creature ; sep- 
arated from everything and everybody and 
standing in God. 

"Again he measured a thousand, and brought 
me through the waters ; the waters were to 
the knees." That is providing for us ! Waters 
to the knees ! Don't you know that is what is 
going to bless and redeem this old world, the 
waters to the knees? Oh, this blessed knee- 
work in the Holy Ghost, it belongs to us ! 
Water to the knees is the provision for us and 
it is in answer to this work that God is doing. 



*The following three addresses were given in the 
Stone Church, Chicago, at a Convention in May, 1912. 



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and is going to continue to do, marvelous, in- 
creasingly marvelous things on earth. 

''Again he measured a thousand, and brought 
me through" — there is a great deal of talking 
about "going through," but I bless God He 
can bring me through. "What do you mean," 
said one man the other day, "about 'going 
through?' I do not understand it." I blesg 
God He understands about getting us through. 
"And the w^aters w^ere to the loins ;" when the 
v^raters have risen to the loins — the creative 
pov^ers are in the loins — then all is submerged 
in God. Oh, vv^hat holy life in the kitchen! 
What holy life in the office, on the street! 
What holy life in the bedchamber ! What 
holy life at the dining table ! What holy life 
v^hen the waters are to the loins ! That is pro- 
vided for us. Everything under, all the move- 
ments of our being under the Holy Ghost. 

"Afterward he measured a thousand ; and 
it was a river that I could not pass over: for 
the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a 
river that could not be passed over." There is 
no accounting for God's blessings. They rise 
so high that God Himself cannot tell them. He 
cannot put them in the words of our poor 
human languages. They are a river that can- 
not be passed over ; they are waters to swim 
in, and the time comes when the child of God 
is lifted upon the mighty waves and floods. 
Oh, what is that in the mind of Christ, that 

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Blessings from Under the Threshold 

purpose of God concerning you and me? Oh, 
how God's heart urges and urges on and on, 
that we may overtake Him ! He cannot make 
us understand it. It is not understandable, 
but it can be experienced. He is prodding us 
on. Everything helps ; everything is a prod 
in His hand as we receive all from God. Ev- 
ery new place I am gaining these last days 
and weeks I am amazed at what I see and it 
is helping to keep me (|uiet. 

All that God is doing today I cannot talk 
about, but every time the Lord works He says 
to me, ''This is nothing but beginnings." 
There are mighty pourings of this river that 
cannot be passed over. We are floating along 
under the mighty movings of God and the man 
and woman is lost sight of, just a little atom 
floating on His ocean. Did you ever see a cork 
floating on the water? You do not stop much 
to talk about the cork, but you see the mighty 
ocean swelling and carrying it forward. It 
is what God is pushing you and me on to, the 
place of the little cork on the waters ; inconse- 
quence linked with Divinity; human empti- 
ness floating;- on the billows of Infinite fullness. 
He is pushing us forward and we are bound to 
go forward and on. What we are going for- 
ward to no tongue can tell, no man can con- 
ceive, it is so glorious. 

"And He said unto me, Son of man, hast 
thou seen this?" Oh blessed is the man, bles- 

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sed is the woman, blessed is the child that has 
seen this, that has had "the vision of the holy 
waters." I remember a young man in Phil- 
adelphia coming into a little Convention like 
this. He was a young printer, proud, am- 
bitious and clever, and bound he would make 
a name for himself. He came into the meet- 
ing that evening at the earnest solicitation of 
his mother. He was a Christian, but the kind 
of a Christian that has so much pleasure in the 
world. He wanted to go to the theatre that 
night, but his mother persuaded him to come 
to the meeting, and a most humble, no-conse- 
quence child read this forty-seventh chapter 
of Ezekiel and God gave the young printer a 
vision of the holy waters. That young man 
was turned upside down and inside out, and 
his heart went after God. God dealt with 
him. He let the world go, but at first he 
couldn't quite let his business go. He ex- 
pected to be on some periodical, some mag- 
azine where his name would tell, but God said, 
"Give up your business to me." He didn't 
tell him He had any other business for him, 
but God got the victory. He gave it all up 
to the Lord and said, "Lord, I will walk out 
of that printing office tomorrow if you want 
me to," and shortly afterward he did walk 
out of that office. God called him with a pow- 
erful call to the Soudan in Africa and he be- 
came a mighty child of God there. Then God 

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Blessings from Under the Threshold 

started him away over in the unexplored re- 
gions of the East Coast. Some of you perhaps 
know I am speaking of Peter Scott and how 
God started under him what is known as the 
British East African Missions. There God 
wrought, and after awhile He kissed Peter 
Scott away to glory, but the work went on, 
and from that work God started other missions 
and the mighty work of God in the interior is 
going on in a marvelous way. He is pouring 
out such a hungry spirit upon the thousands 
and tens of thousands and millions of Africa 
that it will never end. It is rivers that can- 
not be passed over, and it all came about by 
that inconspicuous child of God getting up 
there and reading the forty-seventh chapter 
of Ezekiel that night and Peter Scott's seeing 
the vision of the holy waters. If you are a 
little seed for God you cannot tell what tree 
is going to grow from it. 

May God give each one a vision of the 
holy waters, then they will "issue out toward 
the east country and go down into the desert" 
of Chicago and down into the desert of the 
United States and into the desert of Africa 
and India and China, and go down into the 
sea. "And it shall come to pass that every- 
thing that liveth, which moveth whitherso- 
ever the rivers shall come, shall live : and there 
shall be a great multitude of fish, because these 
waters shall come thither : for they shall be 

165 



In Trinity College 

healed." Oh, don't you want to be in the river 
and the river in you moving on, the movement 
of the Holy Ghost, the Triune God by the 
Holy Ghost? Everything shall live where the 
river goes. Every one that gets the vision of 
the holy waters is bound to be a fisher of men. 
There will be a place to spread the nets and 
"the fish shall be according to their kinds." 
Oh what an inspiration there is in that, to 
let the Lord take us forward, because the kind 
of Christian workers we are, that is the kind 
of fish we will catch. In other words, people's 
children are like them, and so are the spiritual 
children of Christian workers. "The fish shall 
be according to their kind" is the greatest in- 
centive I have ever had to get all the blessings 
the Lord wanted me to have ; not for my sake, 
but for the sake of the children, the spiritual 
children whom God gives. But the "marshes 
thereof shall not be healed." What is the mat- 
ter with the marshy places? They let the 
water in, but they do not let the water through. 
You see them in every Christian assembly, 
Christians who are nothing but marshes. They 
come to suck up something for "me" and they 
have no purpose of letting it go through. The 
only use of the holy water is to pass through 
us. Jesus said it should be in us a "well of 
water springing up into everlasting life," but 
He said it should be in us as rivers if we con- 
tinued to believe on Him. You see we are a 

166 



Blessings from Under the Threshold 

river bed in the salvation arrangement, some- 
thing to receive God and let Him pass through. 
That is our legitimate use, and when we do 
not let the river pass through v^e just become 
a miry and marshy place. The miry and the 
marshy places shall not be healed, they shall 
be given to salt. You know nothing can live 
in the Dead Sea. What is the matter with it? 
It is the salt. That is what will happen to us 
if we receive God and do not let Him pass 
through. Nothing can live. "And on the 
other side of the river shall grow all trees for 
meat," and God says out of him that believes 
on Him shall flow "rivers of living water." 
That is not a river. Is it two rivers? or three? 
or five? or a hundred and five? God doesn't 
stop, and if the growing soul doesn't stop this 
thing will never stop. God doesn't limit it ; 
rivers of living water, and upon either bank 
there shall be fruit; "it shall bring forth new 
fruit according to his months." In Italy the 
orange trees never cease to bring forth fruit 
twelve months in the year. They are always 
fruiting. They shall bring forth fruit accord- 
ing to their months. Why? "Because the 
waters thereof issue out of the sanctuary ;" and 
the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf 
thereof for medicine." We go through the 
world and we are for others, meat and medi- 
cine, wherever the soul goes that has had 
fully the vision of the holy waters. 

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But I am concerned most in this blessed 
chapter about a little part here in the first 
\erse. The waters of all this glory, all this 
fruitfulness, all this power and all this bles- 
sing, all God's possibilities in you and in me — 
see how this thing begins : "The holy waters 
issued out from under the threshold of the 
house." Now who can get water that issues 
out from under the threshold of the house? I 
tell you we have to get down pretty low. Did 
you ever try to get water that issued out from 
under the threshold? You cannot get that 
standing up, and you cannot get it stooping 
down. You cannot get it on your knees. There 
is only way you can get it; down on your 
face. Oh it is solemn. It is low down you get 
this blessing, under the threshold. You can- 
not get your lip under the threshold if there 
is one part of your being that is up. You have 
to be prostrated. You have to get lower than 
the lowest, and experimentally you and I 
know a little about this. You know we never 
get a drink of water in conversion until we get 
our lip down to the threshold. We never got 
it standing up ; never got it holding on to a 
thing, but in letting go. Christ's word to 
Zacchaeus rings through the centuries, "Zac- 
chaeus, make haste and come down." Down 
brethren ! Down sisters ! Down Pentecostal 
Movement! Down Pisgah ! Down! Down! 
Down ! That is the cry that rings out. And if 

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Blessings from Under the Threshold 

we ever sought the Lord in sanctification we 
got down again. This was further down be- 
cause God had given us more light. It was all 
down before God spoke to us and gave us the 
victory. These dear people that have their 
Pentecost and the tongues, how much of you 
was standing up straight when you got that? 
Didn't you get down? One wrote me from 
Los Angeles early in the outbreak, and she 
said, *T like the blessing these people have, 
but if you could come and see the way God is 
working on them you wouldn't want the bles- 
sing." God saw to it that they should have to 
get down. And do you know you never were 
used in your life in any service until you got 
down. 

This is the experience of our blessed Apostle 
Paul in the great Corinthian epistles, the epis- 
tles that came out and blessed that church so 
wonderfully and have gone on blessing for 
centuries, blessed all this dispensation and 
how much more to other worlds we do not 
know for it will never stop. Paul said, 'T 
started in," (quite like some little mission- 
worker in Chicago), "1 started in to win a soul 
to Jesus." "And how did you feel, Paul?" 
*'Oh, I was with you in weakness and fear and 
in much trembling." Ah, God saw to it that 
Paul was all emptied out, "but in the power 
and demonstration of the Holy Ghost." God 
got Paul's lips down under the threshold; the 

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waters began to flow, and the mighty vision 
of the holy waters began to rise. So the power 
and the demonstration of the Holy Ghost was 
given in a little good-for-nothing, no-account 
child of God, for He hasn't any other kind of 
children. "Good-for-nothing" was Paul's 
name and yours and mine, and we all rejoice 
in it. "The Son can do nothing of Himself." 
We are nothing and good-for-nothing. We 
are no-account, but oh, if we crawl down to 
the threshold and get a drink, something hap- 
pens. Waters from under the threshold ! We 
have all had some experience, but the thing is 
to keep that experience. We know what it is 
to get down there where we get Pentecost, get 
the healing, or where we are wonderfully used 
in testimony, or in exposition of the Word of 
God. We know what it is to get down there 
where we are mightily used in intercession, 
but beloved, it is our privilege to stay there 
with our lip under the threshold; and that is 
where we must learn to stay. If we will stay 
there we will have not merely "that wonderful 
blessing when I was in Denver," but fresh 
life ever flowing through. What a revival that 
was at Denver! What a mighty power of 
God ! I came away and said that was a Salva- 
tion Factory. We did not have time to preach, 
didn't have time to sing. People just came in 
at the door and filled the altar. I remember 
going to the hall one night and the people 

170 



Blessings from Under the Threshold 

came in and knelt around that altar before we 
could give out the first verse of the hymn, so 
there was nothing to do but to go around and 
pray wuth them. When we had laid on hands 
and they had received by simple faith, we 
bade them go back to their seats. We wanted 
to get the altar cleared so that we could start 
in and have some regular services — this was 
very irregular. We were ready to sing a hymn 
and pray and read the Word, so we said, "You 
have received?" "Yes." "Now take your 
seat." We wanted to vacate the altar, but ere 
we turned to lay hands on another, that vacant 
place was filled ; thus the altar kept filling with 
new seekers, drunkards, lost women, Chris- 
tians seeking healings, etc., until eleven o'clock. 
We were exhausted physically, but you could 
not stop it. The breath of God was on the 
people. Nobody had a chance to say anything. 
"But we must read the Word of God. What 
would be the report outside?" So one got up 
with a Bible, but oh, the weeping and the cry- 
ing and the praising drowned out everything. 
But I can not go back and talk about that 
wonderful time when I was in the Salvation 
Factory. No, I have to get down and get my 
lip under the threshold now. If anybody 
asks you for a glass of water and you hand 
them some out of the pitcher that has been 
standing here over night, they don't want it; 
they want fresh water. Yet from this identi- 

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In Trinity College 

cal pitcher last night you gave your friend a 
most reviving drink; what is the matter that 
he does not relish it now? Ah, it has stood! 
God wants to keep us with our lips down at the 
threshold. The blessing I received, and the 
work I was in, and my wonderful knowledge 
of the Word, etc., is stale water. It is all good, 
but it is stale water if you and I are not down 
with our lips at the threshold. 

Let us keep down and keep drinking fresh 
water, then how the vision of the holy waters 
will be repeated ! 



J 72 




V 

Cutting Back the Wood 

FTER reading John 15:1-7, the 
speaker said : There are, I am 
sure, a thousand, and I do not 
know but a million sermons in 
the precious, the unspeakable 
heights and depths of the words 
we have just read, but the por- 
tion God puts on my heart this 
morning is a message to the fruit-bearing dis- 
ciples. I must let all the rest go. ''Every 
branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it," to 
the wonderful end ^'that it bring forth more 
fruit." My message is to the fruit-bearing 
branches. I really doubt if there is a person 
in the room this morning that is not to some 
extent a fruit-bearing branch of the Vine. Oh 
it is unspeakably blessed ! We are candi- 
dates for purging just as soon as we have 
borne fruit. This is a message about cutting. 
There is a little grape-vine always before my 
eyes. In my home we have a tiny grape-vine 
in our back garden, but the second garden be- 
yond there is a very large grape-vine. We 
have a kind friend that knows just how to cut 
the vines. He is a skillful vine-dresser, and 
whenever our vine bears fruit, which is once 
a year, he purges it, he cuts back the wood, 



173 



In Trinity College 

and the consequence is that although it is lit- 
tle, we have a great deal of fruit and very rich 
fruit on that little vine. In the second garden 
above is that great long vine, but there is very 
little fruit on it, and the fruit is poor. It is 
not very sweet and the grapes are not large. 
It used to be just as rich and full as it could 
be, but the husbandman, the man that owned 
it, died, and it just takes care of itself from 
year to year. The branches grow, and the 
new tendrils grow and there is a great deal of 
wood there that doesn't bear fruit. Oh, I am 
so glad this morning that my Husbandman 
will never die ! Jesus said, ^'My Father is the 
Husbandman," and the big business of heaven 
in its relation to earth is the business of that 
Husbandman, cutting away the wood. Ev- 
ery time that the vine bears fruit it has to be 
cut away. Oh how solemnly precious ! I lay 
humbly and reverently prostrated under the 
power of God two days ago and the Lord 
spoke to me about cutting away the wood, 
that purging process, and oh how sweet it 
rung in my ears, ''My Father is the Husband- 
man." He is so skillful. He knows just how 
to do this work. He has a wonderful pruning 
knife in His hand. He knows just when and 
where to use the knife. You know there is 
no wood like the wood of the vine. It is very 
peculiar. God always chooses the right kind 
of a tree when He wants to illustrate. When 

174 



Cutting Back the Wood 

He talks of the strength of the believer He 
speaks of the cedars of Lebanon. He doesn't 
choose an ash, it wouldn't fit. So when He 
talks about the vine He knows what He is 
talking about. The ancient Israelites used to 
consider themselves the vine, and so they 
were, but they got rather proud of it; they 
boasted themselves of it, and in the fifteenth 
chapter of Ezekiel, God turns up this question, 
"And the word of the Lord came unto me. 
Son of man, what is the vine tree more than 
any tree, or than a branch which is among the 
trees of the forest? Shall wood thereof be 
taken to do any work?" 

You can't do a single thing with the wood 
of a grape-vine. You never saw a house built 
with it. You never saw any furniture made 
with it. You never saw beds or ships or any- 
thing constructed from it. So God says, 
"What is the vine tree more than any tree, or 
a branch that is among the trees of the forest? 
Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? 
or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel 
thereon?" You can't even make a pin of it 
to drive in the wall and hang a coat on. It is 
good for nothing. "Behold, it is cast in the 
fire for fuel." That is all a Christian is good 
for. "He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost 
and fire." We are only good for burning and 
pruning. 

What is the matter with the wood of the 

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In Trinity College 

vine? You take a segment of its branch and 
put it under a magnifying glass, and call in 
the little children and ask them what kind of 
wood is this? and they will say, ''Why, it is 
not wood at all, it is a tangled mass of 
threads," and if the microscope is of good 
power they will say, "Oh, isn't it funny ! Ev- 
ery one of those threads is a little hollow tube. 
That is the wood of the branch, a mass of little 
hollow tubes to let the sap of the vine in, to 
let the life of the vine through. That is what 
the branch of the Vine is good for, emptiness, 
to let the sap, juice, life of the Vine flow 
through. Good for nothing of itself, good for 
nothing severed from the Vine. You cannot 
make even an ornament from it. No value as 
wood, but resting in the Vine, something won- 
derful happens, all the life, all the blood of the 
great Vine takes possession and runs through 
it ! If you could interview the branch about 
its bunch of grapes as they have them in Cali- 
fornia two and one-half feet high, with their 
huge shoulders one foot broad, you would say, 
"Oh, Branch, what a magnificent bunch of 
grapes you have raised this season." But if it 
could answer you, the branch would say, 
"These are not my grapes." "Why, yes, they 
are ; I see them hanging on you ; you bore 
them." "Oh, no, they are not my grapes at 
all ; they are the Vine's grapes. I could not 
bring forth grapes, but I just rested in the 

176 



Cutting Back the Wood 

Vine, rested my weakness and emptiness in 
the Vine, and he took possession of me, he 
sent his wonderful life, his wonderful blood, 
and it floated along, budding out in leafiness 
and beautiful, fragrant flowers. He kept work- 
ing on as I rested in him and that life of the 
Vine turned to grapes ; as I rested in him, his 
life went pouring through me." Now, that is 
the real story of the Branch and the Vine. If 
we were to talk of the apple-tree this would 
not apply at all. There should be solidarity 
to the wood of the apple-tree, but there should 
be nothing but emptiness to the wood of the 
Vine, and if you are anything as a branch of 
the Vine but good-for-nothing you have to be 
cut down by the Husbandman. It is a fact 
that there is nothing on the face of the earth 
that makes wood so fast as the vine. God 
wanted to make a picture of us and so He just 
put this wonderful thing in His Word to show 
us we are good for nothing ; but we don't 
know how good for nothing we are. We have 
had some severe lessons on this line, but we 
haven't found it out yet. Suppose a cyclone 
of grace and glory should strike this Conven- 
tion before the day is over, and it should all 
come through God's use of one of these prec- 
ious brethren. Everybody in the place and 
everybody throughout the United States, Eng- 
land and Africa would hear how that man 
moved forward and what he did and what he 

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In Trinity College 

didn't do. "Oh, the wisdom that was in him, 
and even his face could not be looked at." 
Eyes would get upon the man instead of the 
God that was operating him. It was said of 
Evan Roberts in the time of the Welsh Re- 
vival there were occasions when he stood up 
there (he did not do much preaching), and 
they could no more look at him than at the 
mid-day sun. God permitted, for the time be- 
ing, His power and glory so to rest upon him 
that there was a brilliancy that the human eye 
could not stand. God took a poor stick and 
filled it with His power and Wales trembled. 
He withdrew the power and it was a stick 
again. Supposing that measure of God's 
power should come upon poor Elizabeth or 
any one of you. All the earth would be clam- 
oring for that one, and that soul would be in 
the most perilous condition that it is possible 
for a human soul to be in, though it would be 
so blessed, and I'd like to be there. But oh, 
the peril that is connected with it, because 
there is in the flesh such a tendency to make 
wood, to rejoice that "God used me," and the 
devil and all hell comes up at such a time. 
"Well, now, that was wonderful the way the 
Lord used you." "That was really poetical." 
"That letter that you wrote which accom- 
plished so much was the great power of God." 
"How great was the healing of that sick man 
when you prayed," etc., etc., etc. "Don't you 

178 



Cutting Back the Wood 

remember that wonderful song you sung in 
tongues?" etc., etc. Oh, if the Husbandman 
were dead we would go on then and make a 
lot of solid wood unto self, but it rang through 
me like the sweetest music, ''My Father is the 
Husbandman ; every branch that beareth fruit, 
He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more 
fruit." 

It is right after the fruit-bearing season that 
the husbandman, the vine-dresser, has to cut 
away the wood, and the Lord showed me that 
not now and then I was to be cut back as 
wood, but every time the Lord used me pub- 
licly, every time I got a blessed new expe- 
rience, I needed the purging that there might 
be no wood made unto self, nothing in me. If 
there is wood made unto self the devil has a 
good time, a picnic in hell, for he can move 
on me. He cannot move upon Jesus Christ, 
but he can move upon me, and in the hour 
of temptation I am in great danger if there is 
selfhood (wood unto self), but oh, my Father 
is the Husbandman. He cuts back the wood. 
He knows the wood that is not all emptiness 
and He doesn't want any of that kind of wood 
there at all. He wants to bring forth in me 
and in you a self-ef¥aced life. Jesus says, 
"Abide in Me." That is all you have to do. 
"Abide in Me and I in you." Every time you 
have been consciously blessed, every time you 
have been used, every time God has written 

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In Trinity College 

a letter by you, every time God has allowed 
you to see a little piece of His plan and be a 
little link, that is the time to cry, ''Oh, Father, 
use the pruning knife, the pruning knife," 
that there may be none of self but all of 
Christ. 

There is one other little word that fits right 
in here, II Cor. 4:10, 11, "Always bearing 
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, 
that the life also of Jesus might be made mani- 
fest in our mortal flesh." And this word is 
the thought of our co-operation with the prun- 
ing-knife. Are we voluntarily delivering our- 
selves over unto death for Jesus' sake? Al- 
ways bearing about in the body the dying of 
the Lord Jesus? You know there is running 
all the way along in the plan of salvation a 
divine work and a human co-operation, and 
when the human co-operation is checked the 
divine work cannot go on in the same way as 
it otherwise would. Are you delivering over 
your human life constantly to the dying of the 
Lord Jesus? Once God showed me this Di- 
vine and human co-operation like a pair of 
hands; as if my right hand were the hand of 
God and my left hand were the human, the 
natural, in me. Now the Lord draws near 
and by the blessed breath of His Holy Spirit 
He woos me (the little finger), an unsaved, a 
lost soul. He tells me I am a sinner. He 
moves by His Spirit (like the little finger of 

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Cutting Back the Wood 

the Divine hand drawing to the little finger 
of the human hand) until he inclines me to 
consent to that, that I am a lost sinner. Then 
He begins to comfort me, to show me Jesus, 
thus the fingers join. That is God working in 
conviction, enabling me to yield, and when I 
yield it is Christ in me, and salvation, initial 
salvation, then and there takes place. But 
oh, my ! it was only initial when you and I 
were converted. There is so much more for 
us. However, the operating power of Omnipo- 
tence is engaged that all the rest of me, my sin 
and my folly, may be united to all the rest of 
Him, if I am an obedient soul. Welcoming the 
light, I keep drawing nearer, finger to finger 
(illustrating), as He draws nearer. He teaches 
me what holiness has to be, how I have to be 
gotten rid of, and reveals that Jesus Christ is 
made to me sanctification. That is another 
big join, another finger of the Divine inter- 
locking with the corresponding feeble finger 
of the human. Laid up for me is divine heal- 
ing and the baptism, and many other gifts and 
graces. Each time the light comes and I yield 
there is a further joining of the human and 
Divine, thus on and on, God wants to make it 
like this (here the speaker illustrates, lifting 
both hands completely locked together), the 
Divine and the human is made to fit together 
as my weakness and His strength, my helpless- 
ness and His life and power. In order for this 

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In Trinity College 

precious work to go on, that I may be fruitful, 
continually and increasingly an empty branch 
of the Vine, there must be that human co-op- 
eration with the Divine. 

Suppose when He comes to convict me of a 
mixture of self in some experience or service 
in which I have been gieatly blest, I refuse 
conviction and justify self. Then there is no 
further Divine co-operation while my spirit is 
in that attitude. I must yield, I must die, if I 
would go on. He puts around me all kinds of 
circumstances and providences that hurt my 
flesh, people lie about me and hurt me, and the 
Lord says, ''Giving thanks for all things" and 
I begin to think, "Well, I can't do it in this 
case," then there is no human co-operation 
with the Divine, only delay. Now, though I 
don't understand how it will work, I can keep 
on the railroad line. If you want to go any- 
where you put your car on the rails. It runs 
nicely while you are on the rails ; these are 
God's rails, "giving thanks always for all 
things," so it is "Praise the Lord" and "Praise 
the Lord," and you keep co-operating. "Oh, 
Lord, I cannot feel to praise You, but I will 
praise You. Send the Holy Spirit down and 
make it real," and He co-operates by His grace. 
That Divine grace coming into us makes a real 
song in the soul, not a mere burst of song, but 
while our will is on the altar, though we feel 
the sizzling and the fire, the beautiful Divine 

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Cutting Back the Wood 

co-operation brings forth heavenly music. I 
believe it is sweeter to the angels than what 
they are getting up there. Ephesians 3:10 
says other worlds are to look on us and be en- 
riched by what God does in us while there is 
the human co-operation with the Divine; 
"that now unto the principalities and powers 
in the heavenlies might be known by the 
church, the manifold wisdom of God." We 
read in I Corinthians 9:25, "Every man that 
striveth for the mastery is temperate in all 
things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible 
crown ; but we an incorruptible." Don't you 
know your crown is making now, and my 
crown is making now, and we have as much to 
do with the making of those crowns as God 
the Father, God the Son and God the Holy 
Ghost? In some Christian lives there is so 
much w^ood, hay and stubble — by and by they 
get a crown and it is a beauty; every crown 
is, but oh ! as compared with other luminous 
and gem-full crowns, it is so meagre, and they 
are dissatisfied with it. But in earthly life they 
would not co-operate with Divine light against 
self. Paul says, "I therefore so run, not as 
uncertainly .... but I keep under my body, 
and bring it into subjection: lest that by any 
means, when I have preached to others, I my- 
self should be a castaway." The word there 
has been more closely rendered "unservicea- 
ble," "unusable." Is it possible for God very 

183 



In Trinity College 

much to use a vessel one time and the next 
time He wants to put His hand on that vessel 
it is unusable? Oh, yes, if there has not been 
co-operation with the Divine Husbandman in 
the cutting away of the wood. If the pruning- 
knife has not been used there is solid wood 
there and God cannot use you. A close ren- 
dering of this text has been, "I knock my body 
about and bring it down," and if we must do 
that to our bodies, we must also do it to the 
fleshly man, to the whole natural creature. I 
knock it about and keep it under. What ac- 
count am I ? The beautifying work goes along 
when the Lord is pruning. 

One time when I was in California at Dr. 
Yoakum's Home we had a very lovely child of 
God there from Denver. He was there in great 
power of the Spirit much used and blest. I 
was one of twenty-five or thirty people in the 
house; there were a great many old women 
there for healing, and I suppose this dear 
brother thought I was one of a row of half- 
idiotic, half-embecile people. Shortly after, he 
went off to a Southern town, and the Doctor 
came to me one morning, saying, "I got a let- 
ter from this Christian and she sent her love 
to you and wants you to come down. I will 
have you go down with Brother P. of Colo- 
rado. God is going to give you a wonderful 
run in the Holy Ghost." Well, I liked runs in 
the Holy Ghost, so I went down, but not in 

184 



Cutting Back the Wood 

the same train. When I got there, there was a 
great coldness and I could not understand it. 
"What was in that letter? Had she really sent 
for me?" We sat at the table and this precious 
child of God and this Christian worker were so 
occupied with the work, they even forgot to 
pass me the bread and butter the second time, 
and I didn't get enough to eat, and I had the 
feeling I was in the way. Self-respect said, 
*'Why don't you get up and go home? You 
know you are in the way. It would be just as 
easy as could be to take yourself off. Of 
course, the thing to do is to get up and go 
away." So I said, ''Lord, show me. I didn't 
come here with any purpose of my own. You 
sent me here and I came in Your will, and now 
I want Your will about going home. Lord, 
show me. Am I to take this train?" I didn't 
get any liberty to take that train, but I tell you 
the wood was being cut down. We must give 
God a chance to cut down the wood. This was 
His opportunity for cutting away the wood. 
The next time I sat down at the table nobody 
spoke to me, just a bare handing out the glass 
of water, and sometimes that was forgotten, 
and just the food passed around once, but oh, 
it wasn't food, 'twas the feeling I was in the 
way. I wasn't asked about going to the meet- 
ing, and I didn't know whether they wanted 
me in the meeting or not, and so it went on. I 
just kept asking the Lord to save me from self. 

185 



In Trinity College 

There is always something blessed that God is 
about to work out. Oh, beloved, the Word 
says that "all things are of God." There is no 
mistake about it. It is not "she is this," or "he 
is that;" we get where we don't see people at 
all. It is all God. So I prayed, "Now show 
me how to resign myself ; show me how to see 
Thee, and Thee only, and put me where my 
ear can hear Thee only." That is the way to 
go through. Then you won't be unserviceable, 
and God will be able to cut the wood back in 
new ways. The Lord gave me that kind of 
prayer, but didn't let me have any light, only 
a little trembling question as to whether I 
should stay or no. At last in prayer it came 
to me, "Why not go to her and say that you 
feel there has been some mistake about your 
coming to this place and that you think you 
have been thrust upon her unwillingly and 
through some inadvertence, and tell her you 
are so sorry for it, and then take your way 
home." I seemed to have liberty for that, so 
toward the end of — to my flesh — three painful 
days, I said to her, "Now, there is something 
I do not understand. I believe I have been 
thrust upon you as an unwilling guest. I don't 
believe you have invited me, and I think it is 
too bad. I am so sorry for you that you 
should have had such trouble and annoyance 
when you are having these meetings, and with 
your building schemes going on and your cook 

186 



Cutting Back the Wood 

gone, and I believe I have been an imposition 
on you and a real burden, and I am just as 
sorry as I can be, but it is not my fault," and 
I told her about the letter to Dr. Yoakum, but 
perhaps he didn't read the letter right; he 
thought she said she wanted me to come down 
and he sent me along with Brother P., but I 
never would have come, of course, to intrude 
if I had understood. By that time I was filled 
with such blessing in my soul, and she put her 
arms around my neck. "Well," she says, "to 
tell you the truth, it was really hard to have 
you come. I hadn't invited you and I wasn't 
intending to take care of two guests." I said, 
"I am sorry. You will forgive me for it, won't 
you? And now I will go." But she said, "You 
are not to blame, and while I do not want you 
to leave, of course, I cannot pay much atten- 
tion to you now, but when Brother P. from 
Colorado is gone I want you to stay. I have 
wanted to meet you for many years. I want 
you to pray with me over the work." The talk 
woke her up a little and the situation altered, 
and after this dear brother left we came closer 
together in prayer, and God gave me three 
most beautiful weeks of prayer with her and 
service in that place, but He first had to cut 
back the wood. Returning to Pisgah, I felt I 
could go into work with so much more of God 
than I had before. Now, if I had gone away 
from that Southern town in a little pride of 

187 



In Trinity College 

self-respect, saying, ''Well, I never intended to 
be an intrusion, I never went anywhere I 
wasn't invited, I will go back on the next train. 
Good-bye, Mrs. So-and-So," and left with that 
thought in my heart, that would have been 
making wood in me, and not cutting it out, and 
you know if we get touchy we are unservicea- 
ble. We may have been much used in the past, 
but we become in a measure unusable if we 
can be touched here and there ; there are diffi- 
cult places God can not put us into. But if 
we can not be touched anywhere, and if God 
has us just to abide in Him and there is noth- 
ing flowing through us but the Jesus-life, we 
can be kicked about and He can work through 
the poor vessel to somebody. The heavenly 
Jerusalem is a cube — six-sided, not upsettable. 
Oh, God has such a beautiful work in purging, 
in cutting back the wood. The more He cuts 
it back the more the grapes will grow, the 
more abundant will be the fruitage, and the 
more luscious will be the taste of the fruit. 

When I went to California and for the first 
time on those hills saw the California vine- 
yards, what a lesson it was to me ! There is 
the root and the sprout, and they just allow 
one stalk and cut off everything that won't 
sprout, and all the life and all the sap in the 
vine flows to that one branch, all through the 
excessive purging, the excessive cutting away 
of wood. Praise God if you are getting a little 

188 



Cutting Back the Wood 

more cutting away of wood in you than any- 
body you know, the deepest trials of anybody ; 
it may be poverty or what not, if you are in the 
most trying circumstances, thank God for the 
priming-knife. You know it is declared that 
pruning is only to this end, 'Hhat it may bring 
forth more fruit." 

I returned to Dr. Yoakum's enriched in God. 
I realized He had carried me through that 
testing time in victory, and He got me more 
empty. I had a new vision of the cutting away. 
I went back to service I hadn't had before ; the 
whole experience was so blest to me. 

By and by I was called to come from West 
to East across the continent. The Doctor 
sent word to this brother to stop me for work 
in Denver. "She will help you in meetings," 
he wrote. "Why, can she preach?" He thought 
I was some old woman who was there for 
healing of a sore toe, or something. He hadn't 
an idea that I could speak of Jesus and His 
love. Well, the Lord blest me and, of course, 
the brother learned to know me on a new 
plane. The Lord poured out His Spirit, and 
one day, the last day I was there, when I got 
up to speak that evening, it was nothing but 
God that time, and oh, how the salvation of 
God poured into that place. I was amazed 
because God had never used me in that way 
before. I was more amazed than any one else. 

Every place I go God generally cuts back 

189 



In Trinity College 

the wood, giving me several dry messages in 
the beginning, and that is one of the ways He 
has of making people think we are of no ac- 
count. They will say, "I am disappointed in 
her. I thought she was a better talker than 
that." Oh, when He knows that they are dis- 
appointed in us, how good it is. That is when 
He is cutting back the wood. And so you 
understand it was God when I saw the Lord 
pour Himself out in that fashion, and then the 
brother got up and said how he had thought 
in Pisgah that I was nothing but some old 
woman in trouble, etc. Then followed an altar 
service, and they came weeping in great 
crowds, and it was such a remarkable thing to 
me to think how God put me down there first 
where those two workers just ignored me and 
I couldn't get butter enough to spread upon 
my bread, and here God was pouring out, and 
this brother recognized God in me, and the 
Lord showed me if I had just gotten up and 
gone back to Pisgah how I would have missed 
all the cutting down of the wood, through deep 
trial that made this divine experience possible. 
And I never would have been brought to this 
service because God could not let me. There 
are many things God won't let people do be- 
cause He can't trust them, but if He can be 
allowed to cut down that wood He can bring 
us where it is all Christ and none of self. The 
Lord said to me that day, "Now you see what 

190 



Cutting Back the Wood 

has come through the cutting back of the 
wood, and oh, my child, if you remain delighted 
with the pruning-knife, I tell you there is noth- 
ing but what will count in the eternities be- 
yond. I am fitting you for service in the mil- 
lennial and after ages." Oh, what a great busi- 
ness God is in ! We are to taste of the glories 
of the coming age, co-operating with powers 
of the Holy Ghost not seen in this age. We 
are in education for a long time to come. No, 
not for any time to come, for a long eternity! 
Now, I am a candidate for purging, are you? 
I want that the prayer shall be constant in me, 
"Lord, cut back the wood." It is easy for us 
to say it here now, but the Holy Ghost can 
bring us where we say it in each difficult place. 
He puts it into practice. He can keep us in 
place where we shall be constantly under the 
prayer, "Lord, cut back the wood." "O, Hus- 
bandman, cut back the wood." Every time 
the Lord uses me, even in the secret place, the 
prayer place, I need to have the wood cut back. 

Cut back the wood! Cut back the wood! 
Oh Christ the Lord, the knife is good. 
Cut back the wood! Cut back the wood! 



191 



VI ' 

Thirtyfold Fruitage 




N THE thirteenth chapter of 
Matthew we read, in the parable 
of the sower, ''Some fell upon 
stony places, where they had not 
much earth: and forthwith they 
sprung up, because they had no 
deepness of earth: .... And 
some fell among thorns; and the 
thorns sprung up and choked them: but other 
fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, 
some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some 
thirtyfold." 

It is this last clause, "some an hundredfold, 
some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold," on which the 
Lord has given me some lessons. I had always 
been very desirous to be a hundredfold fruit- 
bearer, and I believe this is our privilege. The 
Lord tells us something about the one hundred- 
fold fruit bearer in Mark and again in Luke, how 
if we forsake all for Jesus — father, mother, lands, 
children — ^we shall receive the hundredfold in this 
life, ''with persecution." So if persecution is go- 
ing hand in hand with us, and the Lord is call- 
ing us to forsake father and mother and houses 
and lands, or any close earthly relationship as 
He leads out, we may praise God for the trials. 
It is along those lines that we get the hundred- 



192 



Thirtyfold Fruitage 

fold fruitage. Oh, we may thank God for per- 
secution. It is nothing to take the attitude of 
the martyr about. Persecution is something to 
make us leap for joy. Our Savior says when 
they persecute you and cast out your name as 
false, and say all manner of evil against you, 
"leap for joy." And the original says if those 
things are happening to you, *'jump up and down 
very much." But we have to go quite a way with 
the Lord to have some of these things happen 
to us. If we begin to put our finger in our mouth 
and sulk, and are cast down with the little be- 
ginnings of trials and persecutions and separa- 
tions from dear ones, and begin to pity ourselves, 
we will not get along very far toward the hun- 
dredfold fruitage. 

We get so sorry for ourselves when we 
are corrected and chastised by the Word of the 
Lord, and the mouth of the Lord, and perhaps 
by the mouth of God's children. It takes quite a 
time to go a little way with the Lord, but the 
hundredfold fruit goes along the line of those 
who throw up their hands to the Lord and let 
Him rob them of everything He sees has to be 
taken away and make the way straight in all 
things. But it isn't really the hundredfold I 
have so much on my heart tonight, for the Lord 
made me so happy awhile ago over this thirty- 
fold. There is the thirtyfold and the sixtyfold 
and the hundredfold fruitage, and you notice 
thirtyfold is the least fruit that the Christian can 

193 



In Trinity College 

ever bear for Jesus. There is nothing less. Not 
twenty or ten, but the lowest they can bear is 
going to be thirtyfold. Now that is tremendous. 
If I bear fruit unto Jesus at all in anything, God 
says the figures will be thirtyfold. I was in a 
home last night where we were talking about a 
business man, and how in one sale he had made a 
half million dollars. They were telling how suc- 
cessful he was ; he had made half as much as his 
capital right off, half as much as he put into his 
business, and they thought it was a big thing, 
and it was a big thing according to this world, 
but look here what the Lord says : The fruit in 
the Christian life is to be thirtyfold, not thirty 
per cent. That would be a big income if you 
could put out ten thousand dollars and get thirty 
per cent, but this is not thirty per cent; it is 
thirtyfold, which is three thousand per cent ! It 
is as if a man could put out one thousand dollars 
and get thirty thousand dollars ; or put out one 
hundred thousand dollars and get three million 
dollars. This is the encouragement He gives to 
us as children of God in the little things. It is 
how many prayers we send up, this one and that 
one, and the other ; how many little steps we take 
out of our own way; the denial of self for the 
sake of others, and that the Spirit and life and 
love of Jesus may shine through our faces. 
Surely if we are children of God and seeking to 
walk with our blessed Master we are prompted 
to do little things on this side and on that, and 

194 



Thirtyfold Fruitage 

God tells us that even "a cup of cold water given 
in the Name of Jesus" shall in no wise lose its 
reward. And how much is this reward going to 
be? The lowest is thirtyfold. Oh, how wonder- 
ful and how beautiful this is. We do not under- 
stand it all now because we have not yet come 
to the place where everything is shown up in 
its reward; we only go on by faith and believe 
for it now. 

I remember a good many years ago how I 
went out to the Pacific Coast with Carrie Judd. 
You know her as Carrie Judd Montgomery. She 
then had a faith home in Buffalo. The Lord had 
a work here in Chicago in which He had put me 
and she came to Chicago and we went on to- 
gether. I had just before that had a wonderful 
filling of the Holy Ghost at a Convention in 
Western Springs and I was tingling to my fin- 
gers' ends to be and do for Jesus, to have the light 
shine and win souls for Jesus and help Christians, 
and so we started off. We got to a far Western 
town in the mountains and there we were going 
to stop off for a day and night, let our train go 
on and have a night's rest, taking the next day's 
train — a little break in the journey. When we 
got off the train and went to a hotel we had the 
day before us, and I said, 'T feel like having a 
Gospel meeting in this town." Carrie said, "So 
do I. I believe if we ask the proprietor of the 
hotel he will let us hold a meeting." "Well," I 
said, "let's do it. We will go out on the street 

195 



/;/ Trinity College 

and invite every man and woman we meet." 
Well, she shrank from that but she would ask 
the hotel people. The proprietor let us have the 
drawing room, she spoke to the people, and I 
went into the street and invited the people. I 
came across a man who was such a disreputable 
looking specimen my heart failed, and I thought 
I could not invite him. Then it came to me. "and 
Jesus died for ///;;/." I could not get away from 
that. So I went up to him. He was one of the 
devil's castaways. He thanked me, but his look 
and voice were so vile before I got through talk- 
ing to him I was frightened, I never had come 
in contact with any one like that before. I went 
right back to the hotel and I said to my friend 
and her secretary, '*Oh, pray for me right away. 
Pray that I may have my flesh bathed in the blood 
of Calvary for I feel as if I had been besmirched 
and rolled in the gutter." They said, "What has 
happened?" "Oh, I could not tell you, I feel so 
much ashamed." W^e got down to prayer and 
asked for the cleansing power of the blood. I 
kept thinking then. What should I do if he 
should come to the meeting? and I was in terror 
about it. When the time came for the meeting, 
as we went down stairs I tliought I saw that 
man sitting in the hall. I was sure the proprie- 
tor would not let him in the drawing-room, and as 
I saw him I fled into the drawing-room ; my 
heart was in my throat and it took a little while 
to become composed. When we got into the 

196 



Thirty fold Fruitage 

room there were three ladies and one child, and 
the proprietor of the hotel, and the atmosphere 
was the stiffest you can imagine. It was like 
getting in an ice-box. We felt suddenly all 
frozen up. Then Carrie Judd said, "Now, will 
one of the friends play some Gospel hymns for 
us?" She was quite able to do it herself but 
wanted to break them in. So one of the ladies 
in a very stiff, disgusted manner walked to the 
instrument. Oh, it was painful, but we sang 
away. Then we got down on our knees and 
prayed, and we felt a little more melted up, but 
the atmosphere was just as resistant as ever. 
Then we had our Gospel talk, first one and then 
the other, and when it was over the ladies very 
suddenly went as if they had been at some social 
affair from which they were glad to flee, the 
proprietor bowed and we ran upstairs. Oh, how 
glad we were that it was all over ! 

Years after, I was telling this to Mr. Mont- 
gomery, and I said, ''There is one thing sure, 
Carrie and I beat the Christian worker's record 
for the biggest fizzle the world ever saw." 
But this winter when I was in Rochester I re- 
ceived a letter from a lady who said, ''You would 
not remember me in any way. I would not in- 
trude myself upon you, but Mr. Montgomery has 
begged me to write you, and I want to call to 
your remembrance that little town up in the 
mountains and the meeting you had in the draw- 
ing-room of the hotel. I was one of the ladies 

197 



In Trinity College 

present at that meeting and I must say I was 
perfectly indifferent and rather bored; but two 
years afterward the whole thing returned to my 
mind and I was brought to God and converted 
and found the Lord as my Healer. Then I was 
called as a missionary and went tu Nyack Insti- 
tute and received some training. Afterwards I 
went out as a missionary to South America [I 
think she said to Venezuela], and I have been a 
missionary there for many years." It was a 
beautiful letter and, do you know, I was awe- 
struck. If the biggest fizzle that ever Christian 
workers had in their lives could turn out like 
that, I felt we didn't know, we haven't the slight- 
est idea, what is piling up for us in the heaven- 
lies. The Lord says the least shall be thirtyfold. 
Oh, would not the millionaires be happy tonight 
if they could get, year by year, in their business 
this thirtyfold, three thousand per cent! That is 
the kind of business we are in, we millionaires of 
Christ. In this matter of seed-sowing we will 
receive our thirtyfold. We can go on to sixty- 
fold and one hundredfold if we let the Lord take 
us on. He will bring us to where in our inner 
spirits we will be actually separated from every- 
thing not in the will of God, and whether we 
leave our husbands and wives, and mothers and 
brothers and sisters or not, outwardly, we may 
reach it in spirit. 

Oh, He is a wonderful God, and it is wonder- 
ful to have our hearts so on the altar that noth- 

198 



Thirtyfold Fruitage 

ing moves us but the will of God, and the will of 
God moves us continually. The last time I left 
home to come to Chicago it was very hard for 
my sisters; my oldest sister is in her seventy- 
sixth year, and my other sister is nearly blind, 
only being able to see a very, very, tiny bit, and 
through my long illness we had been bound so 
close together. They thought now the Lord had 
called me into this wonderful prayer-life, surely 
I would never go abroad again and when the 
Lord made it clear I should come to Chicago, 
their faces were white for days. As they sat 
at the table they could hardly do more than pick 
at their food, but there was my heart on the 
altar, and that is where our hearts must be, and 
there is God to sustain us, reveal His will and 
hold us steady to it, and there is the rich fruit- 
age. I believe they have already gotten more 
out of my going than they would have received 
had I stayed. Oh, the Lord has such wonder- 
ful ways with us all, even in this thirtyfold 
reward. 

We don't always see the outcome here any 
more than I saw it at the time of that seemingly 
unprofitable meeting in the little town up in the 
Rockies. But oh, we shall see it! The Lord 
tells us it is according to our faith. We know 
we cannot do the least thing for souls in the 
Name of Jesus but what God will have at least 
thirtyfold fruitage. Oh hallelujah ! it may be 
sixty, it can be a hundred. In our praying, in 

199 



In Trinity College 

our doing, in our giving, in our fruit-bearing, 
in our patience one with another — in all these 
different ways in which this grace of God works 
in our hearts and pushes us forward, there is 
going on this fruitage, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and 
a hundredfold, even in our testimonies. I re- 
member my first time of testimony. I had been 
brought up in a church that said, ''Let your 
women keep silence in the churches." I believed 
it, but the spiritual pushed me, so to speak, yet 
such a contention of the enemy ! I saw to it 
when I went into a meeting that I sat where 
there was a seat in front of me ; then if the Lord 
should say, "Speak!" I could pull myself up for 
my legs seemed like those of a ten-days-old kit- 
ten, they just wobbled. Oh, how the devil did 
contend that point of speaking in meeting, and 
if I had yielded, taking it easy and just been a 
proper young lady, respected by my pastor, the 
life I have now had for nearly fifty years, would 
never have been. 

I remember dear Mrs. Whittemore, whom 
many of you know, and who is connected with 
the Door of Hope work, as a little Presbyterian 
girl who used to come to church at their New 
London summer home. She would sit there, just 
a quiet, timid child, but the Spirit of the Lord 
got hold of her. She was a member of the 
Presbyterian church in New York for a long 
time, but she really got converted among the 
drunkards and gamblers in Jerry McAuley's 

200 



Thirty fold Fruitage 

Mission. She knelt among the drunkards ; she 
found she had the same kind of a heart, and she 
got the same kind of salvation. She came to 
New London and kept getting more hungry. 
She came to a little holiness meeting in our 
home, oh such a humble home ! and when they 
came to testify she got up and expressed a de- 
sire for God. There wasn't anjthing very de- 
cided about her testimony, we didn't think much 
of it, but when the meeting was over she said, 
"Did you see / spoke? / got my mouth open to- 
night." We laughed and laughed. She was so 
perfectly delighted because she had gotten her 
mouth open. That open mouth has shaken 
things all over this continent, and a good deal 
further. 

It meant all she rejoiced about and a 
good deal more. Oh these victories for Jesus! 
We don't know where the end of these things 
will be, either in this world or in ages to come, 
these mighty victories, but the Lord has told us 
that the least of them will bring forth thirtyfold ; 
not one of the victories can ever be less than 
thirtyfold. Oh, it is so glorious to me! 



201 



Autobiography of Madam Guyon 

By ANNA C. REIFF 

Few books have had the influence upon the lives 
of Christian men and women in their seeking deep 
religious experiences as the autobiography and writ- 
ings of this martyr spirit. 

Her book, originally published in two volumes, 
was written while she was in prison, at the request 
of her spiritual director, and while the entire auto- 
biography is intensely interesting to the earnest 
seeker after. God, it is too voluminous for the busy 
reader, and we have condensed it, putting the price 
within the reach of all, with the hope of getting the 
wonderful lessons before every child of God who is 
seeking His best. 

Living in an age when darkness had settled down 
upon the Christian world, and little or nothing was 
known of the Holy Spirit and His workings, she 
was used in leading many prominent Christian char- 
acters into the place where they walked with God, 
and many of the gifts of the Spirit were manifested 
in her life. While some may consider her extreme 
in her renunciation of self, the spiritual height to 
which she attained is well worth the price she paid, 
and the Christian world is just beginning to appre- 
ciate and understand her life of sacrifice and perse- 
cution. 

She was persecuted, maligned and imprisoned by 
leaders in the Roman Catholic church, in which she 
lived and died, her persecutions arising chiefly be- 
cause of her book on Prayer. She was ten years in 
prison, part of which time was spent in the Bastile, 
and was banished almost as long a time, but through 
lall her persecutions and imprisonments she was thor- 
oughly resigned to the will of God, and prayed for 
and loved those who were her bitterest enemies. 

This is a new edition of this remarkable book which 
is recognized by all who have read it as a Christian 
classic. 

Cloth, about 250 pages, 65 cts.; postage, 5 cts. 

The Evangel Publishing House 
3616 Prairie Ave. Chicago, U. S. A. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: August 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



DEC 21 1912 



CAHPBEa. 



